


From What I've Tasted of Desire

by 4ureyesonly28



Category: One Direction (Band), Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: College AU, Highschool AU, I'll add another warning before the chapters in which these things happen, I've also taken the liberty to change the names to fit with 1D, Louis is a literal Literature Nerd tm, M/M, Scotland, Shapeshifters - Freeform, Slow Burn, Teenage AU, Twilight AU, Twilight Renaissance, Vampires, Werewolves, and the story is only inspired by twilight, but guess what? so is harry, descriptions of violence, footie louis, larry stylinson - Freeform, mention of rape, nothing too graphic though, they flirt using literary references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 71,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23856655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4ureyesonly28/pseuds/4ureyesonly28
Summary: When Louis moves to the small Scottish town of Fortrose to spend some time with his father, he thinks he's come to terms with the fact that the next two years of his life will be rainy and dull. That changes when he meets the ever-elusive Harry Styles in his Biology class and he makes it his goal to find out the big secret surrounding him and his family. Louis unexpectedly finds himself in the eye of a storm of secrecy, age-old myths, friendship and romance.
Relationships: Carlisle Cullen/Esme Cullen, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan/Gemma Styles, Zayn Malik/Alice Cullen
Comments: 82
Kudos: 264
Collections: One Direction Big Bang Round 3





	1. Return to the Highlands

**Author's Note:**

> It's here! My baby, Twilarry, is finally seeing the light of day. 
> 
> I have to give massive thanks to [Lynda](https://wait4ever.tumblr.com/) and [Roni](https://reminiscingintherain.tumblr.com/) for beta'ing and britpicking and cheerleading and being wonderful friends! Truly, you two are the best!!
> 
> And of course I have to say thank you to [Tanya](https://wilywolf.tumblr.com/), the incredibly talented artist who illustrated this. Truly, you are an inspiration and a delight to work with! 
> 
> Thank you also to everybody else who helped me with this in any capacity. The lovely mods of this fest, those of you who listened to me whine about writing it, those of you who helped me untangle my thoughts to get down the plot, who made the playlists I listened to while writing and who reblogged my snippets with so much encouragement. Wow, I'm gonna stop now before I get too sentimental. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you all enjoy reading this! Please don't hesitate to leave comments as you're reading or message me on [tumblr](https://evilovesyou.tumblr.com/)!

##  _“The most patient people grow weary at last with being continually wetted with rain;_ _  
_ _except, of course, in the Scottish Highlands,_ _  
_ _where there are not enough fine intervals to point the difference."_  
— Robert Louis Stevenson

When Louis had decided to move to Fortrose, he'd known that his life would change significantly. A small town in the Scottish Highlands wasn’t going to compare to Manchester, where he’d been living with his mum for the past fifteen years of his life. His crazy, over-the-top mum, whom he was leaving behind because he didn’t want to hold her back from the travel opportunities that arose with her new promotion. Of course, Louis had visited Charlie since the divorce, but now, as he was stepping off the platform of the train station in Inverness and turning to search for his father’s white police car, he realised that he really had traded the buzz and excitement of a big city for rainy small-town chatter. Louis couldn’t really remember what it was like spending his summers in Fortrose, even though he had spent plenty of summers here—Up until a few years ago, which was when he’d convinced Charlie to take him for different holidays in Europe instead. 

He spotted Chief Inspector Tomlinson leaning against his car in the parking lot before he even stepped out of the station. It wasn’t exactly raining, but the air was humid and somehow felt thicker than it had a ten hour train ride ago in Manchester. That train ride felt like it had taken a significantly shorter amount of time than ten hours—although it was late afternoon now, so the math added up. Louis took a deep breath before putting on a smile and greeting his father.

“Hi,“ he said and it startled him how nervous just the one word sounded. 

“Hey, lad,” Charlie greeted. They awkwardly hugged and Louis hauled his gigantic suitcase into the back of the car before slipping into the passenger seat.

“How was the train ride?” Charlie asked after having driven in silence for a while. Louis had concentrated on the static humming of the old car radio while staring out the window. He’d been trying to get acquainted with the colours and the humidity that was going to surround him for the foreseeable future, so he was caught off-guard. 

“I don’t really remember much of it to be honest,” he answered the question after a few seconds. “I slept the first hour or so and was reading for the rest of the ride.” 

“Reading, huh?” Charlie smiled. “That hasn’t changed then… Even the folks in town remembered that about you when they heard that you were coming to live with me for a while. ‘Always had his nose in a book, that one,’ they said.” 

Louis wasn’t surprised that people could remember him and he’d expected to be the talk of the town—it was more of a village if he was being honest—for a little while, but he couldn’t help the tiny bubble of disdain rising in his stomach at the thought of it. 

“I suppose it hasn’t changed…” Louis admitted. “I don’t think much has changed about me.” 

“You grew your hair out?” his father offered, brows drawn together. 

“It’s not really change, if you just leave it be though, is it?” Louis countered. Charlie chuckled at that. 

“You might be right about that,” he gave in easily and turned the volume of the radio up, efficiently ending the conversation. Louis’ mother would’ve filled every second of the thirty minute car ride with chatter and questions. The thought made Louis smile as he cozied into his seat and turned back to the window. It was easier to hide how miserable he was that he had to live in Fortrose when he could suffer in silence though…He was thankful for Charlie’s taciturnity in this case. 

He was also left alone upon their arrival and used the time to think about his misery and unpack his stuff in his old room. He wanted to cry about the blue painted walls and the soccer posters littering them and the rain, which had finally started pouring, continually welcoming him by loudly splattering against the dirty window…But he couldn’t allow himself to wallow. It had been his decision that had gotten him here after all. His mum wanted to decline the offer, stay in Manchester and write boring articles about local businesses for the paper—but Louis saw the sparkle in her eyes when she first told him about the chance to write for a travel magazine. His decision was made before his mother even considered the consequences. That was what she was like: excitable, diving head-first into anything without thinking. But she was also loving and she loved Louis more than anyone in the world. So when she told him that she was going to decline and stay with him until he graduated college…He didn’t have a choice. He had to let her go. The job was perfect and he didn’t mind being the one to make the sacrifice this time around—not after all that she had done for him. It was easy to see the logic in his decision like this, but when he was sitting on his bed, playing with the pair of fuzzy socks he’d fished out of his newly filled sock drawer to put on his cold feet, he felt irrational misery. He’d made his peace with this, goddamnit! Why were there traitorous tears stinging in his eyes now? 

When Charlie called for dinner, Louis sniffled and wiped his face with the sleeves of his hoodie before carefully opening the door and examining the scents drifting up from the kitchen. 

“I ordered pizza. Don’t be scared! I wouldn’t want you to book a train ticket right back to Manchester after being reminded what my cooking tastes like,” he heard from the kitchen. A wet chuckle escaped Louis’ mouth. 

“Be down in a minute,” he replied, before going to the bathroom to blow his nose and wash his face.

The next morning, Louis awoke to a booming noise coming from the street outside his window and groaned. He hadn’t slept well, missing the sounds of the city and hating the splattering of the rain on the roof. Whatever the noise that had woken him up had been, it stopped suddenly and Louis thought about turning around and going back to sleep, now that it wasn’t raining anymore, but a quick glance at the old dinosaur alarm clock on his bedside table told him it was time to get up. He hopped into his favourite tracky bottoms and last night’s hoodie. The curiosity was killing him, so he went to look out the window. A huge orange truck was parked behind Charlie’s police car—that must’ve been the source of the roaring. His glance travelled towards the front door just in time to see it close behind somebody. Charlie must have invited guests then. 

Louis brushed his teeth and traded the ratty hoodie for a fresh t-shirt before jogging downstairs to find out who had woken him up. He stepped into the kitchen to find Charlie clumsily handling the coffee machine and two other people watching him with bemused but affectionate expressions. Two of the kitchen chairs were stacked to make room for a wheelchair. In that wheelchair sat an old man, who Louis recognised immediately, even if he couldn’t remember his name off the bat, and next to the wheelchair stood a boy about Louis’ own age, maybe a little younger. He had the same kind eyes his father had and when he made eye contact with Louis his face split into a grin that shined so bright, Louis could do nothing but grin back at him.

“I’m sure you remember Billy Payne and…” Charlie said, as he placed a cup of coffee before the man.

“And Liam,” Louis finished. “Of course!” Liam’s smile turned impossibly wider and a second later Louis was engulfed in a bone-crushing hug. 

Now, Louis was sitting cross-legged on the sofa with a cup of tea clutched between his hands like the lifeline it was to him and catching up with Liam, whom he hadn’t seen in five years. Well, mostly it was Liam talking, as Louis was still coming to. He wasn’t a morning person, okay? 

“You’re not much of a morning person, are you?” Liam asked, a constant smile tugging at his lips. 

“What gave me away?” Louis countered. “Can you see how this cuppa fills up the life bar on the top of my head?” 

“Honestly? Yeah, I can kind of see that. You look a lot less dead than you did when you came into the kitchen,” Liam admitted. 

“Excuse me! You were the ones shaking me from my delicate slumber with that monstrous roaring truck in the driveway,” Louis complained. 

“I hope you’re not being mean about the truck because it won’t serve you well to insult it,” Liam warned. 

“Why?” Louis asked. “What does the truck have to do with me?” 

“The truck has everything to do with you, young man,” Billy informed as he rounded the corner to the living room. 

“Yes, I just bought it off Billy here so you can drive to school by yourself,” Charlie added. “I thought it might be embarrassing to be driven around in a police car.” And he thought right! Louis had been trying to think of ways to avoid being taken to school in the Chief Inspector’s car for a while now.

“Oh my God! Are you serious?” Louis jumped up from the couch and flailed his arms, not knowing what to do. 

“I could try giving it back if you don’t like it, but Billy was fairly happy to let it go.” Louis rounded the couch to hug his dad. 

“You didn’t have to do that, dad,” Louis mumbled, hugging his father even tighter. “Thank you.”

“You can thank Liam for keeping it together and tinkering with it,” Charlie said, awkwardly trying to hide how pleased he was with his son’s reaction. 

“Are you a mechanic or something?” Louis turned back to Liam. 

“Kind of…I just mess around with anything that has a motor and wheels to be honest,” the ever-so-humble Liam explained. “Wanna take it for a spin?”

“Do I?” Louis skipped back to the couch to pull Liam up. “I just gotta grab my wallet. I wanted to buy some groceries today anyway.” 

When Louis came back down, Billy and Charlie were watching last night’s game on the telly and his father slipped him a fifty pound note as he walked by.

“If you’re buying food, I gotta chip in,” he said and turned back to the screen.

Louis shrugged and put the money away, too excited to argue. 

“You probably have to clutch twice before starting the engine, but everything else should run smooth as butter,” Liam explained from the passenger seat. “Well, really loud butter.”

Louis laughed and did as he was told. The car came to life with an animalistic roar and seconds later they were on the main street of Fortrose. 

“Hey, you live in Rosemarkie, right? Do you have a supermarket there? The Co-op here doesn’t really warrant a drive to be honest…” Louis asked, fiddling with the radio and trying to get a halfway decent station to play. 

“Uh, yeah. We’ve got a Spar if that suffices?” Liam suggested. “The radio’s pretty shit to be honest, but I kept the original one in. The truck’s about our age by the way…A little older, so I don’t know how long it’s gonna make it.” 

Louis nodded and turned onto the road towards Rosemarkie. “I’ve got my own personal mechanic now, don’t I?” he teased. 

“There’s some cases when even the best surgeon can’t save the patient…” Liam said with a dark expression that somehow just didn’t fit his face. The boy was made to smile, Louis thought, just as Liam started chuckling at his own joke. 

“I trust I’ve found the best surgeon in a 100km radius,” Louis laughed along. 

“That would probably be Dr. Styles you’re thinking about though,” Liam said. 

“Who’s that?” Louis asked, curious to hear a name he hadn’t before. Maybe this small town life had changed more than he’d wanted to admit—probably not though. 

“The doctor and his family moved here about a year ago,” Liam explained—suddenly weirdly serious. “He was a big shot surgeon where they lived before, but now he works at the hospital in Inverness of all places…I think they live just outside of Fortrose. Something about his wife liking nature and the quiet or whatever.” There was a finality in the way Liam had said that, but that only made Louis more curious. And a little hopeful—if he wasn’t the only ‘new kid’ in town, maybe he could swoop under the radar a little better? 

“Sounds nice,” Louis tried. “Um, do they have any kids that would be going to school with us?” 

“Louis, I don’t go to school in Fortrose,” Liam said gently. “But they have like five adopted children and I’m pretty sure they will be in school with you. They’re kinda weird from what I’ve heard though.”

Right, Liam went to school in Rosemarkie. It would’ve been too nice to already know someone, Louis supposed. He sighed. 

“Everything you’re saying sounds pretty cool to me and the fact that you’re calling them weird only makes me want to befriend them more,” Louis laughed as he pulled into a parking space in front of the tiny shop. Liam didn’t say anything more, just jumped out of the car, so Louis followed suit.


	2. The Hawk and The Wolf

##  _“I have a need of the sky,_ _  
_ _I have business with the grass;_ _  
_ _I will up and get away where the hawk is wheeling_ _  
_ _Lane and high,_ _  
_ _And the slow clouds go by._ _  
_ _I will get me away to the water that glass_ _  
_ _The clouds as they pass._ _  
_ _I will get me away to the woods.”_ _  
_ _— Richard Hovey_

It was Sunday, the last day before the spring term would begin, and the last day of peace before Louis had to face the pupils at the Fortrose Academy. Only natural then, that he chose to spend the day with Liam, someone who wouldn’t be attending the Academy with him. Louis still didn’t really understand why all the kids in Rosemarkie had to go to their own little school, but apparently it was something that Billy, Liam’s father and the mayor of the village, had fought really hard for…So Liam had to be a good example and leave Louis to face his demons—aka his Sixth Form peers—alone. 

Rosemarkie was the kind of tight-knit community that Louis would never understand, no matter how hard he tried. The people here looked like they were proud to be from this tiny place in the ass crack of nowhere—and they looked like that every second of every day. Louis tried to imagine what that could be like as he drove down the Marine Terrace towards Liam’s house. He wondered exactly how much Billy’s charisma had to do with that. There was no denying that the man had an incredible presence. His deep voice carried far and everything he said seemed to be so carefully worded and important…Louis was not in the least bit surprised to learn that he had been mayor for over twenty years. 

Stopping in front of a beautiful old house, Louis honked the cranky car horn once, even though he was sure that Liam had heard the roar of the truck, before he shut off the engine and hopped out to wait for him. The truck was probably the thing Louis loved most about this place up until now. Promises of a seaside hike had been made, and even though he didn’t really own the proper footwear for something like that, he was excited to spend the day with Liam and to get out of his room for a while. 

Louis loved the trusty comfort of his books and had already made a habit of sitting on the rickety old chair by the window of his room to read, but as he sought to find positives in his new living situation, he realised that he hadn’t exactly been trying to like it in Fortrose—he’d effectively shut the entire town out and hidden in other people’s stories. He was in Rosemarkie now anyway, but the sentiment was the same. He had moved to a picturesque place by the seaside and hadn’t spent any time admiring it at all. It was January, but that didn’t stop people from going to the beach—at least not as far up North as he was now. The sun was nowhere to be seen, but he could hear children playing frisbee behind him over the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.

“Hi!” Liam exclaimed as he jogged down the narrow path from his front door towards Louis. He was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt matching the mustard colour of his ridiculously large hiking boots. Louis felt cold just looking at him and snuggled more into his weather-appropriate winter jacket. 

“You’re not even wearing a jumper,” he greeted. “If you freeze to death, I’m not hauling you all the way back here, just so you know.” 

“We’re gonna be walking all day, that’ll keep me warm enough, Tommo,” Liam said, jumping up and down—presumably to get his blood flow going, because it was on the verge of freezing solid in his arteries. 

“Whatever you say, Payno.” Within the week of rekindling their friendship they had started using nicknames to tease each other and Louis would’ve had to lie, if he said he didn’t enjoy that. “Where are you taking me then, oh Grand Master of the Hike?”

“Just wait and see,” Liam said with a huge smile. “And ‘ _Be prepared!’_ as my scout leader would say!”

Louis just shook his head and climbed into the truck to grab his backpack from the passenger seat. Upon Liam’s instruction, he’d made sandwiches for lunch and brought a big bottle of water.

“Go on,” Louis motioned for Liam to lead the way. He assumed Liam’s backpack was filled with the same things as his, but upon closer inspection it looked like he’d brought more than that.

“Why does your bag look so heavy?” Louis asked as he caught up to him. 

“Grandmother, why is your nose so long?” Liam mocked. “I’ve got a first aid kit, mostly filled with plasters for the blisters you’re inevitably going to suffer from, city boy.” Louis feigned offence. “And I’ve got a blanket we can sit on when we eat lunch.” 

“Thanks, grandma,” Louis laughed and with that they fell into a comfortable silence. Louis was a bit out of shape, not having had time to go for his usual runs or training with the football team of his school in Manchester in a few weeks, but he was fairly confident he could manage a bit of walking. From time to time they came across a boulder or they saw something small that would’ve seemed meaningless to Louis, but Liam always managed to give it an interesting story. He told Louis about how he collected seashells of this specific blue colour as a kid and how he fell from this ledge in the rocks and bruised a bone in his pinky finger. They walked along the beach for a while, with seagulls squawking over their heads and then headed up a narrow path which led them to a wider path towards a hill. There were little signs naming the different routes at each crosswalk they approached but Louis gave up trying to figure out which one they were following when Liam chose to take a different one for the third time. He figured Liam had planned his own route. 

“I’ve never really understood serpentines before,” Louis said. “But now that I’m walking up a hill with Hercules himself apparently, I’m very glad I don’t have to overcome this by just walking straight up.” He stopped for a second and took off his winter jacket, stuffing it into his backpack. 

“Sush,” Liam laughed. “I told you you wouldn’t need the jacket.” 

“I will never again question your mastery in all things insane,” Louis bowed before taking in a deep breath and resuming his walk. 

“Good,” Liam smiled and pointed to the sky. “Look! A hawk.” And really, there was a large bird circling far above their heads, with its wings spread wide. “The hawk is what they call my father in town meetings sometimes.” 

“The hawk? That doesn’t seem too flattering,” Louis chuckled. “I thought hawks were seen as vicious and sort of…nosy?”

“Oh no,” Liam shook his head. “It’s a tradition. The hawk oversees everything. He’s mighty and majestic. There was a hawk in Rosemarkie probably before there was a king in England.” 

“What, so the major’s always the hawk?” Louis questioned. “What are the townsfolk then? Rodents? Field mice?” 

Liam laughed good-naturedly. “I’m not telling you our legends if you’re gonna make fun of them. This is a big part of our history.” 

“There’s legends specifically about the people of Rosemarkie?” Louis wondered how such a small town could have legends, plural at that, about its history. 

“Loads of them, yeah,” Liam smiled. “You wanna know what the men of Rosemarkie are?”

“Sure,” Louis nodded. “Tell me a story while I drag myself up this hill, please. Talking takes away too much of my oxygen, listening is easier. We’ve been walking for three hours and you’re still as chipper as ever.” By the end of his speech Louis had run out of breath, almost as if to prove his point.

“Let’s start at the beginning then.” Liam considered his words for a few seconds. “When the first people of our clan came here, there was nobody else around in at least a hundred kilometre radius. They were renegades, cast out for being different and having their own values and beliefs. Back then each settlement had their own set of Gods they worshipped, but the people who founded this town, didn’t believe in Gods. They believed in magic.” Just as Liam was starting to really get into the story, Louis had to snort a quiet laugh. When he saw Liam’s serious expression, he followed it up with an apologetic look. 

“They practiced rituals and magics based around their surroundings, using nature as a catalyst for their own special abilities. Their leader, one of my great grandfathers—they called him _eun allaidh_ , the wild bird—channeled the ability to transform into different animals. He taught it to the other men and a couple generations after that, right here in the middle of the Scottish Highlands, surrounded by nothing but green and moors and the sea, we were a clan of shapeshifters. Strong men, who could transform into giant wolves within the blink of an eye, led by the hawk,” Liam told the story as if he were sitting around a campfire after dusk, not walking uphill in the middle of the day with a sweaty Louis lugging himself up beside him. Louis had to honour that. And if he was being honest, he really liked the story so far. Liam was great at telling it.

“What did they do? What did the hawk lead them in?” Louis asked, curiously turning towards Liam as they walked.

“They protected and cared for the village. Back then there was nothing here but green lands and the merciless sea.” Liam’s voice reminded Louis of Billy’s for a moment there. If the story was to be believed, maybe Liam would be a mighty hawk like his father one day.

“They used their abilities to provide for their families and defend the clan from wild animals and all sorts of creatures. Back then these lands were roamed by horrors we don’t believe in anymore,” Liam said with a mysterious heir to his voice. “A century and a half later, they didn’t have to learn how to shape-shift anymore, the ability was now passed down from generation to generation. Each of them forming their own wolf pack, led by the alpha wolf, _ciad faol_.

“The people never forgot the stories though, of the hawk flying in circles above their heads, looking out for them, making sure they were safe. That’s why the leader of the pack still has the honorary title of _hawk_ even though the ability to transform into anything other than a wolf died out not long after _eun allaidh_ ’s death.” 

“So your dad is the alpha wolf of your clan, but they call him the hawk?” Louis asked, a bit taken aback by how quickly Liam had tied the legend back into their reality. 

“You could say so, yes,” Liam smiled as he came to a halt on top of the hill. He put his hands on his hips and looked out over the beach and the sea. 

The clouds had lifted a little and there were single rays of sunshine breaking through their ranks as Louis wiped his brow and set his backpack down. A breeze cooled his sweaty back and he spread his arms, turning to Liam with the biggest smile on his face. 

“This is absolutely fantastic,” Louis exclaimed. “This is the best view I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” He pointed towards the sea in a wide gesture and slowly turned a full three-hundred and sixty degrees on his heels. He spotted the hawk circling over some fields in the distance and waved at it. “Hi, Billy!” 

Liam laughed. “Alright,” he said. “Enough with the legends now. Let's have lunch!” And he pulled out a tattered old tartan blanket with a wolf crest stitched into each corner. Louis pointed and raised a brow in his direction. “Family heirloom,” was all that Liam had to say to that before they sat down to eat. 

Louis was not the sentimental type, but sitting high up on that ledge with Liam, looking out over the sea, hearing the sound of the waves crashing in the distance mingled with sheep baaing on the side of the hill…It did something to him. He never fancied himself a writer, but that night when he got home, muscles sore from walking all day, feet littered with blisters and exhaustion just on the cusp of what he hoped would lead to a good night’s sleep, he sat down and wrote some lines about the sea. He wrote about the wild water breaking against the shore and how restless nature seemed to be here. There was a comparison to be drawn between that and the ever-going buzz of the city he so missed, but he got stuck, couldn’t find the proper words right away and gave up. Instead, he showered and went to bed early, hoping to at least be well-rested when he had to face his peers at the Academy the next morning. ****


	3. Onyx Gaze

##  _“Every once in a while something magical_ _  
_ _Happens when ordinary life turns itself_ _  
_ _Into the call of the wild. Soul meets soul.”_ _  
_—Fay Slimm

It was yet to be determined whether Louis was thankful that this girl, Angelica, had been assigned to help him find his way around the school for the day or not. She seemed nice enough, not too talkative though and it was awkward to walk around in silence with her, while everybody they crossed paths with stared at him. He stood out like a sore thumb anyway, as he hadn’t gotten his uniform yet and was just wearing black jeans with a white t-shirt. The lady in the school office had already eyed the loose neckline of it and reminded him to come back tomorrow when his uniform items would hopefully have arrived. Looking around, the dress-code wasn’t too strict, but skinny jeans and the shirt revealing his collar bone were apparently too punk rock as it was. Louis sighed.

“I’m sorry everybody’s staring at you,” Angelica half-whispered, as they turned the corner to Louis’ first class. 

“It’s not your fault, is it?” Louis smiled. “How long do you think this’ll last?” 

“Um,” Angelica seemed a bit uncomfortable, tucking her curly brown hair behind her ear, before deciding to be frank. “With the Styles’ kids it went for about a month…There’s five of them though and you’re alone. I guess two or three weeks for you?” 

“That long?” Louis almost shouted. “I was hoping everyone would get over it in like two days.” 

“Nothing ever happens here,” Angelica admitted. “Erin told me to ask you if she can write about you in the school paper,” she rattled off that last part so quickly Louis almost agreed because he could barely understand her. 

He pulled a face. “Absolutely not. No way.” 

“That’s what I thought,” the girl hummed. She frowned for a second, her glossy lips pouting out. “Sorry to leave you stranded here now, but I gotta get to my class as well. I drew in where your next class is on your map of the school, we can meet in the library for our study period if you want and we have Biology together after lunch.” 

“Alright,” Louis nodded, looking at the piece of paper in his hands again. “I think I’ve got it. See you then. And thank you.” 

Angelica smiled and turned to walk in the other direction. Louis braced himself and stepped into his first class of the day, just as the bell rang, indicating five minutes before nine. He walked up to the teacher’s desk and handed him the list of signatures he had to collect over the course of the day. He tried to register the name of the teacher but forgot it by the time he got to his assigned seat. Glancing at the literature course book he’d been handed and the reading list, he thought this class would probably be interesting enough. He’d already read every book on the list, though he struggled to remember the plot details to a few of them. They were currently discussing Shakespeare, the teacher had told him, and Louis was excited to see that next to the classic ‘Romeo and Juliet’, they had ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ on the list. Finger’s crossed they might get to watch the recording with David Tennant and Catherine Tate. And even if they didn’t watch it in class, Louis knew that he would watch it at home anyway. 

His second class of the day was Drama. He had a bit of trouble finding the room at first, but made it just in time. As it was the beginning of the term, they started a new project and the teacher gave a presentation about different acting methods, giving out a list of characters and monologues for them to research and study in groups of two until the following week. Louis anxiously looked around the room when he heard ‘groups of two’, but a girl with short black hair and a pristine uniform had already gotten up from her seat and started moving towards him before he could panic. Her face was kind of round and the bangs hanging into her eyes weren’t doing her any favours, but she had a welcoming smile and formally reached out a hand to shake his. 

“Hi, I’m Erin,” she said, sitting down on the empty chair next to him. 

“Louis,” he replied, turning towards her. 

“I know,” she laughed. Louis thought for a second about why her name seemed so familiar.

“Are you the kid that wanted to write about me in the school paper?” he guessed. “Angelica asked me about it this morning…” 

“That would be me,” Erin confirmed. “I haven’t seen her yet. What did you tell her?” 

“I said no, absolutely not,” Louis challenged her with an eyebrow raised. Erin just nodded and failed miserably at hiding her disappointment. 

“Guess we’ll just write about how oppressive the dress-code is again or something,” she sighed and Louis thought it was an ironic topic for her to be sighing about. 

“What about the dangers of teenage drinking…or—as we’re on the topic right now—how the arts need better funding?” Louis suggested. That set Erin off on a passionate speech about how true that was and how they couldn’t even afford to print the school paper in colour and Louis just listened and nodded politely until the list that had been going around landed in his hands. Erin leaned over and they looked at it. 

“Let’s see what’s left,” Erin sighed. She sighed a lot for somebody with such a bubbly disposition.

“Um,” Louis squinted his eyes. “We were talking about ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ in English today…I was going to rewatch it anyway and I think Benedick’s monologue could be fun to pick apart?” 

Erin just nodded and scribbled their names in the appropriate column. “Shakespeare it is then…” They gave the list to the remaining couples and Louis reached into his bag to copy down what the task was and which monologue they’d chosen in his notebook. 

“What’s your next class, Louis?” Erin asked as she got up to grab her bag from her previous seat. 

“I’ve got a study period before lunch,” Louis remembered. “I was going to meet with Angelica in the library, actually.” 

“Great! We’re headed in the same direction then,” Erin smiled and Louis followed her out the room as the bell rang, glad he didn’t have to run around the halls staring at that stupid map again. 

After an actual study period—in which Erin and Louis printed out two copies of the monologue they were supposed to study and read it a couple times, defining their respective focuses of research—Louis and his two acquaintances made their way to the canteen. He sat between Angelica and Erin and got to know a few other people around their lunch table. He was terrible at remembering their names, but they seemed alright. The guys were talking about some rival football team and how they would crush them in their next game. Louis quite liked football, but with how he’d transferred in the middle of the school year, there wasn’t really a chance that he could join the team now. He listened intently and tried to figure out which positions the people he was talking to played. 

“I’m assuming you’re the goalie?” he asked in the direction of a muscular, but fairly short blond guy. It wasn’t really fair of him to call anybody short—what with him being 1,72m on a good day—but he thought that this particular guy might actually be shorter than him. 

“Correct,” the guy smiled at him way too widely. “Do you play?”

“I was on my other school’s team, yeah,” Louis nodded. “But I don’t think I can get on the team in the middle of the year, so I’ll probably just have to settle on watching you fools play.” Louis thought the laugh he earned for that slight jab was a bit too much. 

“What position do you play then?” another guy with a brown buzzcut asked. Louis remembered his name being something very Scottish…Maybe Jamie?

“I played midfield on the team, but I prefer playing forward,” Louis said. “I’m quite fast,” he added with a cheeky grin. 

“Maybe we can talk McEwan into letting you join in the first training session of the term,” the blond guy thought out loud. 

“He might add you to the bench for the remaining year if you can halfway keep up with our spunk,” Jamie, Louis was pretty sure that was his name, teased. 

Louis raised his eyebrows and smirked. “I tend to keep my spunk until my counterpart runs out,” he said and winked. He wasn’t sure if flirting with the school’s football team was a good idea, but he was witty and the joke was served to him on a silver platter. The boys hollered and Jamie’s ears turned a little red. Louis leaned back in his chair with a satisfied grin and opened his water bottle, literally drinking in his victory. 

“You don’t look too sporty,” a blonde girl next to the blond guy said. She’d been obnoxiously trying to get the guy’s attention ever since she’d sat down next to him but he was oblivious. 

Louis turned to really look at her for the first time. She had her nose turned up a little and some mascara smudged under her eyes. “You see, um,” Louis waited for her to fill in her name. 

“Jessica,” she said, crossing her arms. Of course her name was Jessica. 

“Jessica, it’s not about the looks, really,” he continued. “I don’t have to be pumped like him in order to play a good game of ball,” he pointed at the boy she obviously fancied. “My wit transfers to my feet, actually. Sharp and quick.” 

“He’s not wrong, Mikey,” somebody laughed and clapped the blond guy on the shoulder. Jessica just huffed and turned to talk to somebody else.

“I’ll end you,” Mike retaliated. 

“I look forward to it,” Louis gave him a thumbs up. Maybe he’d talked himself up a bit much in front of these guys, he had no idea how good they really were. But they also had no idea that Louis had been co-captain of his Manchester school’s team. He was fairly confident he could keep up.

After the banter he’d incited, the conversation moved on to something else and Louis tuned out for a while, just looking around the canteen and trying to figure out if he could place any of the other students in the classes he’d already had. Instead he found people looking at him curiously or just looking away in time to seem as if they hadn’t been looking. There was one table at the far end of the room with five students sat around in a semicircle, the other half of the table empty, they were the only ones who didn’t look like they were interested in him at all. Louis couldn’t make out what they really looked like at a distance, but they stood out among the others. They barely moved in their seats, like models in a photoshoot waiting for the flash to sign them into a new pose. Their uniforms looked more expensive than the rest of the school’s somehow and when they did move, it was very graciously. Louis watched, fascinated, as the small girl with the black pixie cut picked up an apple and threw it in the air once before somehow spinning it on her finger. 

He leaned over to Angelica, who’d been drawing something in her maths notebook.

“Who are they?” he asked, nodding towards the table in the back. 

Angelica glanced up from her drawing for a second. “That’s the Styles’ kids.”

“Ah,” Louis nodded. That made sense. Liam had told him they were ‘kind of weird’ and kept to themselves, but he hadn’t mentioned how gorgeous they were. Angelica interpreted his silence as curiosity—she wasn’t wrong. 

“The handsome one on the left with the black hair and the brooding eyes is Zayn, next to him, the petite girl with the black pixie cut is Alice,” she explained, with a dreamy sigh. “The blond one in the middle, the guy who always smiles like he knows something you don’t, that’s Niall. He’s got his arms around Gemma, who’s Harry’s older sister.” 

Louis knew he was staring but upon closer inspection, Gemma and Harry did look more similar than the rest of them.

“I thought they were all adopted?” he asked and Angelica raised a brow at him, questioning how he knew. “My friend Liam told me a little bit about the doctor the other day.” 

“Well, they are all adopted, which is kind of why it’s weird that Niall and Gemma are dating if you ask me,” she pulled a face. “But Harry and Gemma are actually siblings and they got adopted together.” Louis studied Harry closer, he was wearing a jacket that was entirely too well-tailored to be the original uniform. The fabric seemed a bit shinier too.

“Harry’s uniform doesn’t seem to be adhering to the rules,” Louis whispered, noticing that the guy with the curly brown hair had a silk ribbon tied around his neck instead of a tie. 

“You’re one to talk,” Erin leaned over to join their conversation. “If I wore a shirt with a neckline like that they’d probably send me home.” She poked at Louis’s chest.

“I haven’t received my uniform yet,” he defended. 

“To answer your question,” Angelica mumbled. “When you’re as dreamy as they are, you can practically get away with anything.” 

Louis thought that over. They were undeniably beautiful, but it didn’t seem like that was the only reason they were so fascinating. There was something authoritative about the way they held themselves, like they were only playing the role of the student for their own convenience. 

“Dreamy is an understatement,” Erin complained. “The doctor and his wife seem to have a thing for adopting actual supermodels.” Louis had to agree that they were stunning. He wondered how it could be that they sat alone at their table, not many people paying attention to them, whereas Louis thought that they were the most interesting people he’d seen since he’d stepped foot in Scotland.

“To be fair, I wouldn’t mind Harry breaking the dress-code either if he makes the uniform look like _that_ ,” Louis mused, not able to take his eyes off of Harry’s still form. Then Harry turned his head towards him all of the sudden, almost as if somebody had called his name. Louis snapped his head down to look at the table. 

“Oh my God. Harry Styles is staring at you,” Erin giggled next to him. 

“Shut up,” Louis winced. “He’s not still looking, is he?” He felt awful. After a day’s worth of catching people staring at him, he’d been caught staring at somebody else. 

“Oh no,” Angelica said. “He definitely is still looking at you. He looks…constipated?” 

“For God’s sake, stop looking!” Louis peeked up to see a fiery expression on the boy’s face. His hair was longer than the other boys’, draped artfully to frame his face, his brows were drawn together to form an almost comical arch if it weren’t for how beautiful he was. He looked like a baroque oil painting…His black eyes burning themselves into Louis’ gaze. This was what Rubens would’ve painted an avenging angel to look like. Louis couldn’t have looked away if he tried. ****


	4. Intermolecular Force

##  _“Obsidian was caused by volcanoes, an eruption of steam and gas so furious that it melted the earth itself into this hard, shiny object.“_ _  
_ _— Kathi Appelt_

The thing that saved Louis from physically catching fire in Harry Styles’ dark gaze was the school bell. Who’d have thought that he’d be grateful for that disturbing noise one day? They were both shaken out of their stupor and turned quickly to pack their bags and leave for class. Louis headed to Biology with Angelica, and as Jessica’s Spanish class was in the vicinity, she joined them on their way to the lab. They’d definitely gotten off on the wrong foot. Louis wondered if she’d come around eventually or if she’d just stubbornly think of him as a no-good wisp of a boy for the upcoming year and a half. They nodded each other farewell and Louis walked over to the teacher’s desk to collect his signature. He was handed his books and Mr. Banner pointed at the only empty seat in the room. 

Sitting on one end of the table Louis had been assigned was none other than Harry Styles himself. He had crowded himself into the very corner by the window and was staring at the rain outside with an impenetrable focus. Louis slowly walked over and sat down next to him. 

“Hi,” he said. “I’m Louis.” He tried for a smile as Harry’s obsidian eyes flitted towards him. For a moment, it looked like their previous roles were reversed as they stared at each other. This time it was Harry who looked like he was about to burn alive. His brows drawn together in that heartbreakingly beautiful manner as he took a shallow breath. 

“Harry,” he gritted out between his teeth, voice weak. Louis wondered what his voice sounded like when he wasn’t so strained and watched as he turned forward again, towards Mr. Banner. His jawline was pronounced in a way that Louis had never seen before. He couldn’t take his eyes off of him as Harry swallowed and clenched his jaw. His face was more beautiful in profile, half-hidden by his hair, than any other face Louis had ever seen front on. Harry’s hand on the surface of the table formed a tight fist, the milky skin on his knuckles turning even whiter as it stretched over his bones and it remained that way for a long time. 

Louis had forgotten to breathe, too entranced by Harry’s close proximity, and when he finally filled his lungs with air, he smelled the most delicious perfume he could’ve imagined. Harry smelled like roses and the beach after a storm, but there was something sweet in there that Louis couldn’t quite decipher. He subconsciously leaned a tiny bit closer as he breathed again. Harry, who’d sat perfectly still like a statue of a Greek God up until that point, pulled his hand from the table so quickly it blurred in front of Louis’ eyes, and gripped the side of his stool, moving even further into the corner and away from Louis. The motion stirred Louis from his hypnotic state and he quickly shook his head at himself. He leaned away from Harry, embarrassed by his staring, not to mention the creepy sniffing, once again. Mr. Banner was already in the middle of his lesson and Louis did his best to focus on what he was saying, but to be quite honest, he barely had any idea of what was going on. Ever so often, he would glance at Harry from the corner of his eye and sometimes Harry’s eyes were on him already, glaring, cold and black. 

What had Louis done to him? Was his staring enough to warrant such…disdain? Whereas in the canteen, Harry had looked curious and concentrated, now he looked so mad, almost as if he were in agonizing pain. Maybe something had happened since they had last seen each other during lunch and that was why he was so furious now? Why would he have glared daggers in Louis’ direction then though? It must’ve been personal…But Louis couldn’t think of anything he’d done that would justify this icy stare or the way his whole body was turned away as far as possible. Just as Louis was desperate and uncomfortable enough to actually turn towards Harry and ask him what the fuck his problem was, Harry jumped out of his seat. Two seconds later, the school bell rang and by the time Mr. Banner had finished his sentence, Harry was already out the door. What a strange person…

On the way to his truck, Louis met Jamie, who filled him in on the fact that he was actually the captain of the football team, which Louis had suspected, and told him that the coach had agreed to let him train with them the next day. 

“Oh, wow,” Louis said. “I didn’t think you’d actually follow through with that.” 

“What, are you scared now?” Jamie smirked. 

“Not at all,” Louis laughed. “I’ll bring my kit tomorrow and kick your ass!” with that he climbed into the car and went home. 

The football thing had lifted his mood significantly, but he couldn’t stop thinking about how odd Harry was. Or how breathtaking. Louis’ thoughts spiraled around Harry as he prepared a dish of mac and cheese for him and Charlie’s dinner. That only occupied him for about fifteen minutes though, and now he had to wait for his father to come home from work before he would turn on the oven and let the heat crisp up the breadcrumbs and melt the cheese to perfection.

While he was waiting, Louis decided that he would definitely step up and ask Harry what his problem was during their next Biology lesson. It irked him to no end that somebody seemed to dislike him so much without having spoken to him at all. Jessica was a different story—Louis didn’t really want her to like him anyway. But why did Louis want Harry to like him so badly? As he thought about those dark, dark eyes setting him on fire in the canteen, Louis knew he was already in trouble. Harry was without a doubt the most beautiful, heavenly entity Louis had ever laid eyes upon. He hadn’t planned on necessarily staying in the closet when he moved here, but he wasn’t sure how happy these small-town kids would be knowing he was gay, especially now that they’d put in actual effort to let him play on their football team. He’d dealt with an onslaught of offensive comments back in Manchester, but he was co-captain…They couldn’t just kick him off the team. What if Louis’ impending crush turned too obvious and somebody outed him? He checked the time and realised that Charlie would probably be gone another two or so hours. 

“Hi, Lou,” Liam picked up on the first ring. 

“Are you busy right now?” Louis asked, without beating around the bush. 

“Um, not really. Just hanging out with my friend Finn. Why? What’s up?” Liam asked, sounding a bit concerned there at the end. 

“Oh, I thought maybe you could come over? Or I could pick you up and we’d go for a drive or something,” Louis mumbled. “But if you’re already hanging out with someone, I don’t want to intrude.” 

“Bullshit,” Louis could practically hear Liam shake his head. “You wouldn’t intrude! Just come over. We’re on the beach in front of the house.” 

“I was kinda hoping to talk to you about something alone?” Louis admitted. “But maybe we could talk after dinner? Just on the phone is alright if you don’t wanna stay out so late.” 

“You’re kinda freaking me out, not gonna lie,” Liam chuckled nervously. “Come over after dinner and we can share some biscuits in the car for dessert or something.” 

“That sounds perfect, Li,” Louis smiled. “Thank you! And don’t freak out. I’ll be there between eight and nine, depending on when Charlie gets home.” 

Louis stopped the truck on the side of the street in front of Liam’s house. This time he didn’t bother to honk. He wasn’t exactly worried about coming out to Liam, but there was always a bit of a nervous energy surrounding the whole ‘I’m gay’ talk. And that wasn’t even the part that Louis needed to discuss with his friend now. Usually these were the topics that Louis would talk about with his mum, but now that he actually had a friend that he felt like he could trust, he wanted to become a bit more independent. 

Liam startled him by ripping open the passenger side door and jumping in. He was only wearing a t-shirt and had obviously run through the cold. Louis started the motor again and cranked up the heat so Liam wouldn’t freeze to death. Liam warmed his fingers in front of the air vent and nodded towards the small tin in his lap. Louis reached over, opening it and placing it on the centre console so both of them could reach in and grab biscuits as they talked. He stuffed a whole biscuit in his mouth and undid his seatbelt, turning and leaning his back on the car door as he chewed on it. He enjoyed the comfortable silence—or the equivalent of silence as the truck roared—for a minute or so before Liam reached over and turned off the engine. 

“What’s going on, Tommo?” Liam asked, his face a frown of concern. 

Louis pulled his legs up onto the seat and sighed. “Okay, what I’m about to tell you, is only the prerequisite to why I actually wanted to talk to you, but you kind of need to know in order to fully understand my dilemma.” He took a deep breath. “And it’s not really a big deal, but in situations like this, telling someone for the first time, it always feels a bit weird.” Liam nodded and reached a hand over to pat Louis’ shin. “Okay, here goes nothing…” Louis paused, taking a deep breath and looking out the windshield. ”I’m gay.” Louis closed his eyes and waited for a reaction. 

“Louis,” Liam said, but it wasn’t distinctly positive so Louis kept his eyes shut. “Lou, look at me.” He obliged. “Thank you for trusting me and telling me, first of all. Man, you’re a fantastic lad and I hope you know that this doesn’t change that we’re friends. Re-meeting you and getting to know you again this past week was the best thing that happened to me in a while.” 

“Thank you,” Louis whispered. The tears that stung in his eyes made him realise just how badly he needed Liam to be his best friend. 

“C’mon lad! Gimme a hug,” Liam smiled and they hugged awkwardly over the middle of the car, almost pushing the biscuit tin to the ground. “Now, what is it that’s really bothering you?” 

“Ugh,” Louis moaned. “I can feel an impending crush on this guy I met in school today and I don’t know how to stop it from developing. Especially ‘cause I think he kind of hates me.” 

“What?” Liam said. “What in the heavens is an impending crush?” He laughed.

“I’m serious. The boy’s the most beautiful being I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I’m gonna make a fool of myself. And I don’t know how the other guys will react if they find out? They’ve arranged it so that I can play footie with their team tomorrow and they might let me join if I’m good enough and I can’t go through the whole thing where they try to bully me off the team again, Liam,” Louis babbled.

“They’ve tried to bully you off the school’s football team before? What the fuck?” Liam looked about ready to kick someone’s arse. 

“Yeah, well, emphasis on tried,” Louis smiled sadly. “I told you I was co-captain, so they sort of needed me. But that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that this guy basically set my soul on fire with the way he looked at me in the canteen during lunch and then when I actually got to sit next to him in Biology, he just glared at me, like he hated my guts and—oh my God—you don’t understand how beautiful he is. He looked at me like he wished I wouldn’t exist and he was still more beautiful than any other man I’ve ever laid eyes upon.” 

“Wait, so he seemed interested at first?” Liam was clearly confused and Louis couldn’t blame him. The story made no sense. 

“I mean, I don’t know…He looked really intense both times, but in the canteen he seemed curious, he was completely focused on staring at me and I just stared back. But then when I sat down next to him he pulled his chair as far away as possible and just glared. The whole lesson. And when I was about to ask him what the fuck was going on, he jumped up and the bell rang.” 

“That’s…strange,” Liam said, rubbing his temples. 

“Yeah,” Louis sighed, grabbing another biscuit. “I’m gonna try to confront him, but I don’t know if I’ll even get a word out if he looks at me like an angel of wrath.” 

“That’s such an intense description for only having met him today,” Liam looked at Louis with concern. Again. 

“Yeah, well…” Louis shook the crumbs off his fingers and pinched the bridge of his nose. “He’s just everything I’m attracted to. His hair is long and curly—I’ve got the biggest weakness for curls. And his face honestly looks like it was sculpted from marble. And he smells so good? I sat down next to him and it literally clouded my mind. I’ve never felt this way before Liam. What if I actually develop a crush on him and he just continues to fucking hate me? His eyes were so cold…” 

“You’ve already got it bad, mate,” Liam chuckled. “You’ve met this guy once and you’re waxing poetic about the way he smells?”

“Argh!” Louis was so frustrated. He hit his head against the car window behind his back. Liam reached over and patted his knee. 

“You’re gonna be fine, Lou,” he consoled. “Just try and focus on that football thing, yeah? Charlie always tells Billy how good of a player you are. You’ve got this!” 

Louis smiled timidly. “I’ll show those small-town hillbillies how we play in the big city.”


	5. Missing in Action

##  _“Absence is to love what wind is to fire;  
it extinguishes the small, it inflames the great.” ___  
— Roger de Bussy-Rabutin

The excitement of being allowed to train with the football team almost made Louis forget about Harry Styles. Almost. Louis, cowardly as he admittedly was, spent lunch in the library. However, his last lesson before training with the boys for the first time was Biology and he was incredibly determined to confront Harry’s icy glare today, but Harry was just nowhere to be seen. Unreasonable anger flared up in Louis’ stomach when the final bell rang and he realised Harry wasn’t going to waltz in at the last minute. Who did he think he was to avoid Louis’ wrath?

Louis tried to find something positive, at least this way he could try to concentrate on Mr Banner’s lesson. He tried to let his anger and his thoughts about Harry subside, but it felt more like they simmered in his abdomen. His hope was to let them out while kicking at a ball for a couple hours after that disappointing Biology lesson. 

So, Louis had promised Liam to show those suckers how to play football. And show them he did. During warm-ups he contained himself pretty well, keeping up but not showing off his strengths and weaknesses yet. He was just one of the guys, training along…But when the coach put on a little scrim, Louis gave a hundred and ten percent, finally able to stretch his legs and run again, chasing the ball like it held the solution to world hunger and by the end of it he was so exhausted he could barely stand up straight in the showers. He was sitting down now, tying his shoes, satisfied with the heavy pull of his exhausted muscles. Coach McEwan approached him just as he was about to leave. 

“Last night I looked up which position you played in Manchester,” he said as he sat down. “You didn’t tell the lads you were co-captain of your team.” Louis felt the heads of the last few players left behind in the locker room snap towards him. 

“They didn’t need to know everything…” Louis smiled. “I like to keep my strengths to myself for as long as possible.” 

“Hopefully you’ll share them when you become part of the team?” the coach questioned, eyebrows raised. 

“ _When_ …” Louis mused. “I didn’t know we’d moved past the _if_ yet.” 

“The _if_ was history as soon as you just ran past my two best defense players and scored a goal in the first ten minutes of the game, son,” McEwan laughed. “I’ll talk to Jamie and we’ll figure out a good spot for you on the team. And I have to talk to the headmaster since you weren’t signed up for any extracurriculars, but we’ll figure it out if you want to play.” 

“I’m fine being benched for the season, honestly,” Louis looked at his new coach. “I don’t want to take anyone’s place or disturb the hierarchies of the team, Sir. It would be great if I just got to train with everyone as part of the team.” 

“Sure, sure,” the coach appeased. “You’ll be training _and_ playing as part of the team. We don’t do things half-arsed in Scotland, boy.” Louis just nodded and tried to hide his pleased smile. “Now get out of the locker room! All of you.” 

On his way home, Louis was split between whistling in victory and frowning stubbornly. His mood swung this way and that and when he came home and shut the front door a little too hard, he almost scared himself. Stupid Harry Styles and his stupid beautiful face had ruined his day, just by their absence. Louis wasn’t even sure why he was so mad anymore, just that he needed to stop thinking about Harry in order to properly function for the rest of the day and to be able to tell Charlie the good news with a genuine smile. So Louis did what he always did when he needed to escape something, he picked up a book and sat down on the sofa to read until his father came home. That evening he shot Liam a text with the good news and toasted his grilled cheese sandwich to Charlie’s in celebration. He barely thought about Harry, only when Liam asked and he had to tell him that he hadn’t shown up to school. 

Louis was still determined as ever to confront Harry and his dark stare the next day. The fact that he’d had a dream about him the previous night only fueled his anger and today he didn’t even avoid the canteen. His eyes searched the room for a head of curls, somehow too familiar to him for the fact that he’d only seen it up close once, but came up with nothing. He found Harry’s siblings sitting around the same table they had been at on Monday, but they were all looking in different directions, seemingly bored out of their minds. The blond guy, Niall, picked up a strand of Harry’s sister’s hair, just as Louis sat down, and twirled it in his fingers mindlessly. If Louis weren’t a bit creeped out by the fact that they were technically brother and sister, he’d find it cute. Gemma suddenly turned and glared at him. Her eyes were a gleaming shade of brown, their glow visible even over the distance between their tables, as she stared him down with a relentless hatred behind her beautiful features. It left Louis breathless. If Harry had seemed mad, he almost looked like he was in pain compared to his sister, whose look was just filled with hostility. Similar to when he’d been in this position staring at Harry two days ago, he couldn’t look away. Although, this time he desperately wanted to. Their stare-down was halted by Niall leaning in and whispering something into Gemma’s ear that made her turn away. Her features turned a million times softer in an instant and she kissed Niall on the lips. Louis looked away, breathing in long steady breaths. This family sure knew how to convey a thousand words through one fiery stare. 

When somebody addressed him in conversation, Louis glanced up and saw Harry’s other sister, Alice, had turned her face to look at him and she looked…pleased? Louis inclined his head more towards her and she winked at him. She just winked and turned to talk to Zayn like it was the most normal thing in the world. What was wrong with this family?! 

“Louis, were you listening to what I just said?” Jamie asked, exasperated, but not unkind. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Louis turned to face him, barely able to tear his gaze from Alice. “I’m a bit lost today,” he apologized again, trying hard to focus on Jamie, who checked the direction he was looking in and looked like he understood what Louis was going through. Though Louis doubted it, he was thankful for the understanding look.

“I said, the coach wants you to play centre forward. I know you played midfield in Manchester, but we already have a pretty good midfield. And I think you said you like playing forward?” Jamie repeated. 

“Yes!” Louis pumped his fist in the air. “That sounds fantastic! You have no idea how happy I am you’ll let me play at all.”

“The plan is to have you play the second half of the first game of the term. Kind of like a surprise attack on the rival team. We don’t have many new people playing usually so that’ll be a good chance for us to strike,” Jamie leaned forward as he went into more detail.

“You’re like the secret weapon mate,” Mike threw in. “Like fuckin’ Captain Marvel ascending from outer space.” 

Louis laughed. “You’re being quite nice to me considering you literally told me you’d ‘end me’ the other day, Newton.” 

“Eh,” Mike shrugged. “I thought you were just being douchey, but it turns out you really didn’t talk yourself up too much.” 

“Thanks for the head’s up on the captain thing, by the way,” Erik threw in. 

“Well, I told the coach already…I like to keep my strengths hidden for as long as possible…” Louis smirked. 

“That’s pretty much how we came up with our game plan anyway,” Jamie laughed. 

“Who would’ve thought Scottish footie jocks could be such creative folks?” 

Louis might’ve completely forgotten about his grudge against Harry Styles if the glaringly empty space next to him in the Biology lab didn’t serve to remind him almost every day. The football team was taking up the bulk of his time at school that week—he even had to go to meet the headmaster so he would sign off on him joining the team. And when he was at home, he was either reading Shakespeare or listening to David Tennant recite him. The small remaining part of his time was spent goofing around with Liam on the beaches of Rosemarkie Bay and drinking tea at the Beach Café until way past his usual bedtime. The truck allowed him to move freely around the area and Charlie hadn’t said anything about him coming home too late yet, so Louis enjoyed his freedom. He never would have guessed that his social life would grow to be quite so…fulfilling when he decided to move to Fortrose. That’s what he told his mother, when she called that Saturday night to check in with him. She asked about Liam, cautiously implying that Louis might like him, but Louis shut that down quickly. Liam was...too chummy. He was a great friend, and Louis loved hanging out with him, but there was nothing romantic about it. When asked about other boys, Louis quickly changed the topic to football. Although an unforgettable face flashed before his eyes at the question. Louis touched his forehead as if that could wipe the image of Harry Styles glaring at him from his memory. 

He was quick to end the call after that and walked down to the kitchen to grab a piece of chocolate from Charlie’s not-so-secret stash. He knew it would probably make him restless in his sleep, but he’d had the weirdest dreams the last few nights anyway so he figured he couldn’t make it worse. 

Now he didn’t know whether it was the chocolate or the conversation with his mum, or maybe the fact that he was starting to believe Harry Styles had just been a figment of his imagination, but that night his dreams were even more confusing and...feral than usual. Harry’s face had appeared in all his dreams since the day he met him. Surrounded by a furious fire the first night, but as he’d calmed down, it was mostly just that the people he was talking to in his dreams turned into Harry. That night though, Louis had the strangest vision of himself, standing on a cliff island in the ocean, and when he started looking around suddenly there were trees everywhere. He could still hear the faint sound of the waves crashing against the rocky base of the island but he was in a full blown forest now. And every way he turned, Harry stepped out from behind the trees, glaring at him menacingly. He was coming closer and closer but never quite as close as Louis wanted him. And then Liam appeared, far away, but he was running towards Louis. Louis smiled at him and pointed to Harry, who was only a few metres away now. At that, Liam stopped and shook his head, trying to reach out for Louis and get him to turn away from Harry. But Louis didn’t want to, so he stayed. And he felt Liam try to pull him away as he stared at Harry’s face, which changed from a frowning expression to a slow, dangerous smile. 

When Louis woke up from dreaming about Harry Styles, he was breathless and furious. How could this guy, this strange person with an even stranger family, affect him so much? How come he only dreamt about him, and not Gemma for example, who was arguably scarier than Harry...And why was he never scared of Harry’s dark looks, his eyebrows drawn together to form an angry V on his beautiful face? Why wasn’t he frightened of those abysmal eyes sparking with an emotion he couldn’t quite place? Louis really had to get a grip on himself. And he definitely wouldn’t be eating chocolate before bed again.


	6. The Eye of the Storm

##  _“There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.”_ _  
_ _— Willa Cather_

When Harry showed up in school again the following Monday, it didn’t go anything like Louis had expected. By this point, Louis’ eyes had stopped scanning the cafeteria and he’d resorted to just glancing towards the Styles kids’ usual table to face the inevitable disappointment of counting four heads instead of five. By the end of his first week, Louis had honestly considered if Harry was an actual figment of his imagination, so needless to say he was surprised to see that Harry had returned. So surprised in fact, that he stopped dead in his tracks and managed to make Angelica walk straight into his back. 

“Sorry,” Louis said immediately, turning to make sure she was alright. He glanced over his shoulder to take another look and make sure he wasn’t imagining things but there he was. Sitting in the same spot as the first time Louis had seen him, perfectly still and ever so breathtaking. 

“No worries,” Angelica laughed it off and picked up her water bottle from where it had fallen down. “I’m surprised to see him too,” she whispered. 

“What?” Louis blanched. “I’m not—who?” 

“Come off it,” Angelica laughed. “It’s just me. I don’t think anyone else has noticed.” She glanced over Louis’ shoulder. “Well, maybe one other person…” 

“No,” Louis sighed. “Just act like nothing happened. C’mon, let’s sit down.” 

“Okay,” she threw her arm around his shoulders and walked him to their usual table. “He’s still looking, by the way.” 

“Shut up,” Louis whined. “He hates me.” 

“Disagree,” Angelica chuckled. “Why would you think that?”

“Because he was really cold in Biology last week and he probably thinks I’m a weirdo for staring at him all lesson,” Louis whispered into his new confidant’s ear as they approached the table. “Let’s eat. Maybe chat after?” 

They didn’t get to chatting, as Louis got caught up discussing the upcoming footie match with his teammates and really, Louis was glad. He didn’t know what he could’ve said anyway. 

There was a slight moment of panic as Louis walked into his Biology lesson exactly one week after he’d first met Harry. Louis sat down in his place silently and stared determinedly ahead so as not to repeat the previous week’s staring and sniffing disaster. He noticed Harry turning towards him in his chair from the corner of his eye and frowned. Maybe Harry was going to confront him about it. 

“Hello,” Harry said. His voice was deep and smooth and Louis was powerless not to turn towards that voice. “I believe we haven’t properly introduced ourselves yet. I’m Harry.” I know, Louis thought. He half expected Harry to stretch out a hand to shake his, but instead he just smiled. 

“Um,” Louis mumbled. He couldn’t decide whether to look into Harry’s warm ochre eyes or at the hint of a dimple on his cheek. The curl effortlessly falling into his eyes like he was fucking Clark Kent was a very close third runner up. “I’m Louis.” 

“Yes,” Harry nodded, looking happy to get a response out of him. Maybe the seconds had dragged on longer than Louis realised. “I’m sorry for leaving you hanging with the experiment last week. I promise I’ll be a better lab partner from now on.” Louis wondered how Harry even knew that there had been an experiment, Louis had never seen him talk to any of the other students, except for his siblings. Maybe he’d talked to Mr. Banner before the lesson to get caught up… “Why are you furrowing your brows?” 

“I was just wondering how you knew that we even did an experiment last week,” Louis said without thinking. Great, now he sounded like he thought Harry didn’t have any friends. Which wasn’t necessarily untrue, but still rude to say. “I would offer to let you borrow my notes, but I doubt you can read my chicken scrawl,” he tried to make amends immediately. 

“That’s alright,” Harry blinked. “I’m sure I can catch up in no time,” he said with a smirk. 

“Cool,” Louis turned forward to open his notebook and write down the date in preparation for his lesson. He was determined not to let himself stare at Harry during this lesson at all. Harry was nothing more than nice to him now and he didn’t want to tip the scale into creepy and angry territory again. 

“Why did you move to Fortrose?” Harry asked from beside him and Louis messed up the number two he was just writing for the year. “Pardon me, you must be terribly bored by this question at this point.” 

“Not really,” Louis gave in and turned back to look at Harry’s thoughtful expression. “Nobody’s really asked as forwardly as you.” 

“You don’t have to say if it was too brazen a question to ask,” Harry backtracked quickly. 

“It’s okay,” Louis assured. “It’s just that it’s a bit complicated, I guess.” 

“I’m sure I can follow,” Harry said patiently. His gaze was in intense juxtaposition with the way he spoke. His eyes were earnest. They reminded Louis of molten caramel. 

“Alright,” Louis nodded. “My mum’s a journalist and she got offered a really great job at a travel magazine…” 

“So she sent you to live with your father instead,” Harry assumed. 

“No, no,” Louis shook his head. “She would never. She wanted to turn it down but I told her I wanted to come here instead.” 

“So you sacrificed your happiness for hers,” Harry whispered, indicating that the lesson had started. Louis angled his body towards the front of the room but he couldn’t stand tearing his eyes away from Harry yet, transfixed by the way he was clearly trying to figure Louis out. Louis bit his lip, unhappy to disappoint Harry again. 

“Maybe that’s why I said it initially,” Louis gave in. “But I wasn’t happy in Manchester either.” 

“You’re unhappy,” Harry stated. It wasn’t really a question but his expression prompted Louis to answer it anyway. 

“Only sometimes,” Louis admitted. “I thought I would miss the city, but it’s not nearly as bad as I imagined.” 

“What is it you like about the city?” Harry asked immediately. 

“You don’t have to keep asking me about myself to be polite,” Louis mumbled with a self-deprecating smile as he turned away. He couldn’t deal with looking at that gorgeous face any longer. Not when it felt like he was pitying him.

“I’m not...just being polite,” Harry sounded upset about that assumption. “You’re a very fascinating person.” Louis frowned at that. 

“Are you taking the piss?” he snorted. 

“Absolutely not,” Harry said, loud enough to make Mr. Banner turn towards them with a disapproving tut. 

“I was always under the impression I’m very easy to read,” Louis whispered when he felt that the teacher’s focus was completely off of them. 

“Not to me,” Harry sighed. Louis turned to see his expression and tried to understand why he sounded so frustrated about that, but he ended up being blindsided by the intricacies of Harry’s face. It was like he’d forgotten how beautiful he was because he’d looked away for a few minutes. He got so lost in Harry’s golden gaze, he had a hard time remembering his icy black glare from the week before. 

“Wait a minute,” Louis’ face scrunched up in thought. “Are you wearing contact lenses or something?” 

“No,” Harry tilted his head to the side. “Why?” 

“I swear your eyes were like black last week,” Louis mumbled. 

“I’m sure that’s just the light playing a trick on your eyes,” Harry answered, a bit too stiffly. He closed his eyes for a second and when they opened again, the bell rang and he was off with a quick goodbye. How strange. Louis could distinctly remember how black his eyes were just a few days ago. Was he embarrassed about the contacts? Why else would he lie about something as trivial?

Louis felt a strange sense of deja-vu looking around the cafeteria and being surprised by seeing Harry again the next day. He’d half expected him to just vanish once more after the eye colour disaster. 

“We never got to talk,” Angelica said, pushing her tray into Louis’ to get him to move with the line. 

“There’s not much to say,” Louis shrugged. 

“Why’d you think he hated you?” she asked. “You seemed quite chummy yesterday. Even Mr. Banner side-eyed you two.” 

“He was really nice yesterday,” Louis mused. “Nothing like last week. Last week he looked like he wanted to kill me when I sat down next to him.” 

“Weird,” Angelica laughed. “I’ve never seen him have a conversation with anyone besides his siblings though, so I guess that’s a point in your favour.” 

“What? Me versus the rest of the school?” Louis laughed. 

“With the way he looks? Pretty much.” 

By the time Friday rolled around, Harry had almost succeeded in making Louis forget about their initial meeting. Almost. Louis hadn’t forgotten about the contacts incident but Harry’s eyes were a perfect shade of ochre every day so he decided not to bring it up again. Biology lessons had turned into something Louis looked forward to just because of the conversations he and Harry were now having. Harry was still a very strange person, but he was interesting to no end and probably the most eloquent person Louis had met since he’d stepped off the train in Inverness. 

Louis’ attendance at the academy had been perfect until today so when he woke up and saw the dinosaur’s tail pointing to half an hour after his usual alarm on the clock on his bedside table, he contemplated just skipping the first lesson… But his first lesson was Biology today. So Louis sighed and jumped out of bed to quickly get ready. He brushed his teeth and shoved a cereal bar in his mouth on the way out of the house, only to turn back and switch his sheepskin lined jean jacket for his waterproof winter jacket. He almost slipped and fell on his ass on the way to his truck but thankfully managed to catch himself on the hood of the car. There was a proper hail storm going on and the little pieces of ice cut into his face. 

He started the car, impatiently waiting for the motor to warm up. But Louis was a careful driver, especially cautious to go slowly on the rain-wetted and ice-spiked streets this morning. The windshield wipers were going as fast as they could, Louis checked every intersection twice before crossing and by the time he saw the gates of the Academy, he had about two minutes to get to class. Icy pebbles drummed against the windows and the roof of the car with an enormous volume. The tires slid along as he took a right turn into the car park, but thankfully he’d turned slowly enough to cut the curve. He decided to park right there in the back since he could barely see far enough to make out the space in front of him. 

Just as Louis got out of the car, he noticed that he wasn’t the only one cutting it extremely close today. Now that the hail wasn’t hitting the roof of his truck anymore, he could hear multiple voices chattering around him and water splashing as people were running to get inside. He took a quick look around before reaching back in for his backpack and saw that Harry and his siblings were on the other side of the lot, looking like a rain jacket commercial as the doors to their Mercedes opened and they stepped out from each side. The wind picked up and blew their hair around like those big fans they used on America’s Next Top Model – not that he made a habit of watching that. He caught Harry’s eye for a split second and braved a small wave before throwing the car door closed and hurriedly walking towards the school. Or trying to rather. The wind was blowing ice and dirt in his face as he leaned against it to avoid being blown away. 

“Louis!” someone exclaimed. “Watch out!” But by the time Louis had turned, it was already too late. He slipped on a patch of ice and fell, hitting his head on a car behind him and saw in slow motion as a giant tree branch swung towards him, carried by the wind. He didn’t have time to move out of the way, nor was he agile enough to not fall on his arse again as soon as he tried to get up. Louis closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable impact. But, instead of front-on, he was hit sideways and pressed into wet asphalt. 

“Oh, goddamn it!” he heard a soft curse from above him. He would recognise that voice anywhere. Louis quickly blinked his eyes open to see Harry hunched above him, holding Louis head in one hand and lifting the tree branch off of his shoulder with the other. Louis stared at Harry’s fingers curling around the side of the thing that should’ve killed him, or at least sufficiently knocked him out, as if it were featherlight. Harry followed Louis’ gaze and sighed, placing the branch down on the ground. All of this transpired in less than five seconds and Louis’ head was spinning. He tried to sit up, but Harry used his now free hand to push him back down. 

“You should stay laying down,” he murmured. “You might have a concussion.” 

“How did you get here?” Louis asked, trying to sit up again. He was sure he’d seen Harry on the other side of the car park before he started walking towards the school building.

“Please stay down until the medics get here,” Harry said, agitated. It didn’t skip Louis’ notice that Harry had forgone answering the question.

“It’s wet,” Louis complained. “And cold.” Harry just rolled his eyes and told Louis to stay still. He scooted over on the ground, as far away from Louis as possible, in the small space they had between the car and what appeared to be an actual small tree. Louis could now see the roots covered in dirt and wondered how the wind had managed to pull a full tree out of the ground. Though even through the dullness of him having hit his head he could still hear the storm howling and the pin pricking of the hail against his skin. There was a big crack in the wood, a huge chunk missing where Harry’s shoulder had been as he had leaned over Louis. 

“You just magically appeared out of thin air and lifted a full tree off of us as if it were nothing, Harry. What the fuck?” Louis whispered as people were starting to approach them and he slowly sat up despite what Harry had said. His head was spinning but he wasn’t sure if it was because of the injury. 

“You hit your head Louis. That’s ridiculous.”

By the time the ambulance had taken Louis and Harry to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, Harry had managed to turn an awkward silence into a cold, spiteful stare-off. Yes, Louis had hit his head, but that didn’t cause hallucinations. He knew what he’d seen. And Harry was acting like Louis was stupid, refusing to say the truth. Those were the top two things Louis hated: being lied to and being painted as dumb. Harry was very high on his list of despicable people after their half-hour stare-off in the back of the ambulance anyway, but when they arrived and Harry was allowed to walk in for a check-up while they insisted on taking Louis in on the stretcher, his position on the list sky-rocketed. Louis felt fine. 

Harry had disappeared inside the hospital and Louis was taken to a room for his examination. He wasn’t allowed to do anything and the nurse kept fussing about, making him nervous, so he asked her for a glass of water just so she had something to do. He’d stared at the wall clock on the opposite side of the room for exactly five minutes and thirty-seven seconds when the door swung open and a young, blond doctor walked into the room. He was exceptionally handsome which worried Louis, who had a hard time focusing in his fury against Harry, but felt that being attracted to his doctor wouldn’t help either. 

“Hello, Louis,” the doctor said in a pleasant voice, taking the little clipboard the medics had left at Louis’ feet. “I’m Doctor Styles and I’ll be examining how badly you were hurt in your accident. Can you sit up and tell me your name and age, please?” Doctor Styles? This must be Harry’s father then. He was very young, the girls had been right. In fact, he didn’t look a day over twenty-three, but having a medical degree and a wife and five adoptive children meant that he had to be a bit older. This was nothing like the fantasy Louis had concocted in his head of meeting Harry’s parents. He didn’t expect to be attracted to the doctor and the setting was definitely not in a hospital. 

“I’m Louis Tomlinson and I’m seventeen years old,” Louis said after the slight shock of meeting Harry’s father had passed. Doctor Styles had waited patiently for his answer though, not letting Louis know if Harry had let him know that Louis knew that his son had superpowers apparently. That thought sufficed to make Louis feel a bit dizzy though. 

“Alright,” Doctor Styles smiled. “Do you know why you’re here?”

“Yeah,” Louis nodded slightly and pulled a face at the sharp pain that flashed through his head at the motion. “I was in the school car park during the storm and I fell when I saw a huge thing of wood swinging my way.”

“How do you feel, Louis? I was told you hit your head quite badly when dodging that tree the storm had picked up,” the doctor nodded along with what Louis was saying, taking notes on the clipboard without lifting his eyes once. 

“I actually hit my head against a car when I fell,” Louis corrected. “Harry pushed me out of the way of the tree entirely. He made sure my head didn’t hit the asphalt.”

“Mhm,” the doctor nodded, still not showing any signs of knowing or not knowing about what had really happened. “Look at my finger,” he instructed and shone a light into Louis’ eyes. “You still haven’t told me how you feel.” 

“Oh,” Louis scrunched up his face in thought. “I feel okay. My head’s a bit fuzzy and I get dizzy when I move too fast though. And I can feel that there’s a swelling in the back of my head so that’s unpleasant.” 

“You’re very lucky then,” the doctor finally looked into Louis’ eyes now. He sounded very serious, but Louis was taken aback by the fact that his eyes had the exact same caramel colour as Harry’s. 

“I was,” Louis nodded, more carefully this time. “If Harry hadn’t been there, my situation would look very different now.” Louis made unwavering eye-contact, trying to convey that he knew something was up. The doctor nodded. “Where is Harry now? Can I talk to him?”

“Harry’s in my office, I think. You can talk to him later, but first the nurses will give you some medication for the pain. Your father is waiting outside, I’ll let him in as I leave. If your dizziness or the pain grows in any way, you should immediately come back to the hospital. Other than that, you only have a very minor concussion and you should be able to go back to school by Thursday.” 

“Can you let Harry know I’m looking for him, please?” Louis asked and Doctor Styles nodded obligingly. “Thank you so much, Doctor.” 

Charlie rushed into the room as expected, but Louis was too exhausted to deal with his fatherly worry. He really needed to talk to Harry. At least to get their story straight. Louis wasn’t going to run around telling everyone that Harry can lift trees, but he needed to know why he was lying. 

“Are you okay, son?” Charlie asked, looking like he wanted to hug Louis, but not being sure if he was injured in a way that would prevent him. 

“Yes, Dad,” Louis sighed. “I’m fine. Doctor Styles said I only have a very minor concussion. I’m just waiting for the nurses to bring me my painkillers.” 

“Alright, the car is parked right outside so we can leave right away,” his father rubbed his shoulder. 

“Actually, I need to talk to Harry before we go.” 

“Who’s Harry?” Charlie frowned. 

“He’s the other guy who was involved with the accident. He pushed me out of the way,” Louis explained. 

“I didn’t know somebody else was involved,” Charlie sounded surprised.

“Well, he didn’t get hurt. Barely a scrape on him. But I want to talk to him before we leave because I won’t be allowed to go to school until Thursday.” 

When Louis was finally allowed to leave the room, Harry was standing in the corridor, looking miserable. Charlie was waved off to sign some papers as Louis marched over. 

“Hi,” Louis nodded, wanting to scream at and fuss over Harry all at once. “Are you alright?” 

Harry snorted a short laugh. “Yes. What do you want, Louis?”

“I want you to tell me what actually happened. I know what I saw but it doesn’t make any sense,” Louis whispered as he followed Harry towards a more secluded area of the hospital. 

“What do you think you saw?” Harry countered.

“I waved to you when I got out of my car. You were on the other side of the car park. Then when the tree was about to hit me, you magically appeared right next to me and pushed me out of the way. You put yourself into harm’s way and you should be injured, but you seem perfectly healthy. You lifted the tree off your shoulder with barely any effort,” Louis was out of breath by the time he finished. He closed his eyes for a second when he realised how crazy he sounded. 

“Who do you think is going to believe that?” Harry bit back.

“What?” Louis shook his head. “Who’s going to believe me? I don’t know. You?” 

“Me?” Harry frowned. “Why would you care if I believe you?”

“Because you are acting like I’m a lunatic when I know that I’m not. I’m not gonna walk around town telling everybody you’ve got superhuman strength.”

“What do you want, Louis?” Harry sighed.

“The truth.” They stood there in a stubborn silence for about half a minute. “We should at least get our story straight,” Louis groaned. 

Harry’s eyes widened in surprise. “You really aren’t going to tell anybody, are you?” 

“No, of course not,” Louis tilted his chin up in pride. “Unlike you in the ambulance, I don’t snitch.” 

Harry laughed. “The medics needed to know your condition,” he shrugged. Louis narrowed his eyes and waited for Harry’s cover story. It was his secret they were keeping. “You got out of your car and I came over so we could walk to class together because I wanted to talk to you about our homework assignment. We were just starting to make our way towards the school when you fell and hit your head and when I saw the tree, I pulled you out of the way,” he explained with a slight sigh.

“I like that,” Louis nodded and winced at the pain at the back of his head. “Very close to the truth. That’s good. I’m not a very good liar.” 

“So you’re gonna go with it?” Harry still sounded skeptical. 

“Yes, obviously,” Louis rolled his eyes. 

“But you’re not gonna leave this alone, are you?”

“No,” Louis shook his head. 

“I hope you like being disappointed then,” Harry snarled before turning abruptly to walk away. 

“Hey!” Louis called after him and he half-turned back. “Thank you. For saving my life and all.” 

Harry just nodded and walked to where his sister was standing on the other end of the long corridor. Gemma looked at Louis with an unimpressed frown and the three of them turned to walk in different directions. 


	7. Capricious

##  _“It was like looking at the ocean:  
some days, you could tell what mood it was in.  
Most days, though, it was unreadable, mysterious.” __  
__― Rick Riordan_

As Louis had to spend a couple days at home, he found himself hanging out with Charlie a lot more than before. His father had taken two days off in case Louis felt ill and had to be taken to the hospital again. Though Louis appreciated the sentiment and to a certain extent liked the time they spent together, he was tired of the constant fussing by Wednesday. He was feeling quite well and had finished all his homework the previous day so he urged Charlie to go to work when the two of them were having breakfast.

“Honestly, you can go to work. I feel good,” Louis said around a bite of toast. “I can see how staying home drives you mad.”

“What if something happens to you though?” Charlie accused. 

“How about I tell Liam to come over and check on me after school?” Louis suggested out of the blue, quite proud of the idea. “Please, Dad. There must be important police work that’s just waiting to get done because I’m clumsy and fell on my arse during a storm.”

Charlie frowned. “Alright,” he sighed. “I want Liam to call me when he gets here no matter the circumstances.” Louis went to text Liam immediately. “And if either of you go into the woods I’ll lock you in your room for the rest of eternity,” he added after a couple seconds. 

“Into the woods?” Louis looked up. “What’s with the woods?”

“Haven’t you heard of the bear sightings?” Louis shook his head no. “In the last month we’ve had 3 sightings of giant bears in the woods. There haven’t been any attacks yet but seeing as you almost died from a storm, I’d rather you not meet a bear.”

“Almost died…Don’t exaggerate, Dad!” Louis rolled his eyes.

“I’m just trying to look out for you, Lou.”

“I know,” Louis sighed, a little uncomfortable with how earnest Charlie was being. “I appreciate it. No woods for me or Liam!”

When the door finally closed behind Charlie’s back, Louis let out a full lung of air and flopped onto the loveseat opposite the telly. He wasn’t really in any condition to watch a lot of television, his head still aching when he concentrated on a screen too long, but he switched it to the channel that played classical music all day, turning the volume down so it faded into the background, and grabbed his book from where he’d tucked it between the cushions last night. He read until Liam arrived a few hours later. Liam came in with a bag full of junk food and two cans of Irn Bru, having taken the key from above the door. He dumped everything on the couch as Louis placed the receipt he used as a bookmark between the pages of his tattered copy of Sherlock Holmes stories. 

“Have I told you how glad I am that we are friends?” Louis smiled up at him, vaguely gesturing towards the pile of sugary and salty goodness next to him. 

“Fuck off,” Liam laughed and leaned down to hug Louis. “I gotta call Charlie and tell him you haven’t fallen into one of your books yet.” 

“You came just in time,” Louis nodded carefully, hoping his head was okay enough by now not to make him dizzy again. “I think if I’d turned another page, I would’ve woken up in the late nineteenth century.” Liam glanced at the cover of the book in Louis’ lap. 

“And what?” he asked. “Started chasing Moriarty with Cumberbatch and Freeman?” He was distracted by Charlie on the phone after that so Louis refrained from expressing any opinion about the BBC series. 

Liam and Louis talked all afternoon, stuffing themselves with Red Vines and chocolate eggs and Tesco brand crisps until both their tummies hurt and they could barely move. 

“So what happened to you?” Liam mumbled after a few minutes of grunting and shifting until they were comfortable. His legs up on the couch and his head resting against Louis’ thigh. Louis’ other leg was thrown over the armrest of the couch. “I didn’t want to ask over text.” 

“Ugh,” Louis groaned. He didn’t want to lie to Liam, but he’d promised Harry not to tell anyone. And something in Louis told him that Liam knowing about Harry’s super-human strength was a bad idea. “I was walking towards the school with Harry,” Louis started practising his lie and he was interrupted by Liam’s low whistling. “Not like that. We were talking about a Biology assignment when somebody called out and I went to look behind me to see what was going on, but I slipped and fell on my arse and hit my head on a car. Then I saw that the storm had uprooted this huge tree and it was swinging right at me. Harry pulled me aside though so thankfully I didn’t get hurt beyond my fall before that.” 

“God,” Liam searched for Louis’ eyes until they were looking at each other. “How are you feeling?” 

“I’m okay,” Louis smiled. “Much better company now than the past two days.” 

Liam laughed. “Isn’t Charlie a delight to be around?” 

“He is,” Louis chuckled along. “Just not for extended periods of time. We both get so awkward.” 

“You haven’t lived with him since you were a wee little baby,” Liam pointed out. “It’s going rather well, I think.” 

“I honestly would’ve never thought that I could have as good a time in Fortrose as I’m having now,” Louis nodded. “You’re a good friend, Liam. I’m glad you’re around.” 

“Alright,” Liam sat up abruptly. “Enough with the sappy shit, mate. Don’t you have an old Playstation somewhere?” 

“Yeah, I do,” Louis thought about where he’d last seen the Playstation 2 he’d left here some years ago. “I think I’ve got GTA for it. We’ll just have to dig it up out of the boxes underneath my bed.” 

Liam cheered and started up the stairs to Louis’ room. Louis thought that he’d done alright in telling Liam the half-truth he’d agreed to spread. He wasn’t anticipating the next day at school, having to repeat it over and over, but if Liam had believed him, he must’ve told it alright. 

Erin had finally gotten her chance to put Louis as the cover story of the school paper. Louis refused to have his picture taken for it though and wanted his quote to be as short as possible. 

“Just take a picture of the fucking tree, Erin,” Louis groaned. “I don’t want to be in it. Please.” He opened the door to the cafeteria and got in line for lunch. 

“Alright, but you’re gonna have to give me a good quote,” Erin pointed her finger at him. 

“It’s not polite to point at people,” Louis told her. “You can take a recording when I inevitably have to tell everyone what happened at the lunch table.”

“Ugh, fine.” 

They sat down at their usual table – Louis took a moment to realise that he now had a usual lunch table and a group of people he actually didn’t mind hanging out with – and everyone turned towards him with curious expressions. No wonder, he’d told them all not to bother him and the ones who had texted him before he’d come back to school had only gotten very medical updates. 

“God, stop staring,” Louis looked at each of them, but they all stayed focussed on him. Erin took out her old-fashioned voice recorder and recorded a quick intro. 

“So, Louis...What happened?” she asked. Not a very elaborate question, but Louis guessed he could just throw out his already practised lie now. So he did. He kept it short. Assured those who thought they hadn’t seen Harry with him that yes, he’d been there and their lunch break was over before they could ask too many questions. 

“Hey,” Jessica bumped into Louis’ shoulder on their way to class. “I hope you’re okay. I think we got off on the wrong foot, but you’re a good lad. I’m glad Harry pulled you away from that tree.” Louis was taken aback at her sincerity. He’d assumed they would stay slightly rivalrous for a long time. 

“Thanks, Jess,” Louis nodded toward her. “That means a lot.” 

“See you tomorrow,” Jessica smiled as she turned towards the Spanish classroom. 

“Bye,” Louis mumbled, even though she probably couldn’t hear him anymore. 

“Hi,” Louis said as he plopped down in his seat next to Harry. 

“Hello,” Harry greeted back, if a little stiffly. There was a long, awkward pause. “How’s your head?” 

“Never had any complaints,” Louis laughed and turned to see the scandalized look on Harry’s face at the innuendo. 

“That’s not what I meant,” Harry said seriously, but the indentation of his right dimple gave him away. 

“I know,” Louis shrugged. 

“Please answer,” Harry drawled, looking at Louis with his head tilted in a way that brought out all his best features. He pouted a tiny bit and Louis wanted to slap him for using as blatant a tactic to get him to answer. The problem was, it worked. 

“My head’s fine, Harold,” Louis rolled his eyes. “The bump at the back is growing rather comfortable in its place and I only get dizzy if I get up too fast.” 

“Good,” Harry seemed genuinely relieved. “That’s good.” 

“How’s your shoulder then?” Louis couldn’t bite his tongue. 

“Never had any complaints,” Harry smirked. 

“I know,” Louis narrowed his eyes. “I’m still trying to figure out how.” 

“You’re not going to give up,” Harry stated. “You haven’t told anybody, but you won’t rest until you find out.” 

“That’s right,” Louis sighed and Harry sighed along. 

“I wish you weren’t as perceptive,” Harry mumbled. “I wish I thought that you would fail in finding out, but you’re smart...and stubborn.” 

“I know,” Louis grinned boastfully, but on the inside he preened at the compliment. 

“I also wish that what you will inevitably find out, won’t make you hate me,” Harry sighed again. 

“I don’t think it will.” 

“You’d be smart to turn around the second you find out.” 

“I won’t, though,” Louis interjected. 

“Don’t say that yet.” 

So Harry and Louis weren’t exactly friends, but they talked in every Biology lesson and even though they sometimes hit points in their conversations where Harry would completely shut down, Louis felt happy to see him around more often than not. The following Tuesday, exactly eight days after the accident, Louis walked into the cafeteria, his arms linked with Angelica’s and did his routine, unsubtle scan of the room. Well, scan of the room wasn’t exactly right, he just looked towards the table where Harry usually sat with his brothers and sisters and frowned when he didn’t see him. 

“He’s over there,” Angelica inclined her head towards a seat on the opposite side of where Harry usually sat.

“Oh,” Louis furrowed his brows. 

“Why?” they both asked at the same time, giggling as they shuffled along the queue. 

“He’s looking at you, by the way,” Angelica told Louis just as he finished up and picked up his tray. He turned around to see Harry waving him over. “Go on!” she nudged him in the approximate direction of the small table Harry had occupied alone. 

“Uh,” Louis mumbled as he approached Harry. “Can I help you with something?” Louis wanted to slap himself. He sounded like the spotty teenager at the Blue Banana in Sheffield who used to try to sell him Beatles shirts when he was in there looking for Bowie and Pink Floyd merch. In retrospect, Louis couldn’t believe he used to save up money and take the train to go in there to buy shirts regularly when he was younger.

“I was wondering if you’d like to eat lunch with me today,” Harry smiled and pointed at the free seat opposite him. “Only if you want, of course. You’d probably be better off not doing it. But I’d love to spend this free period with you.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Louis slowly set down his tray on the table. “You want to convince me to sit with you...Against my best interests?” 

“Exactly,” Harry smiled. 

“You’re so weird,” Louis sighed as he sat down. “And if my eyes haven’t deceived me, you’re not inviting me to eat lunch _with_ you. Because I’ve never seen you eat.” 

“Once again, I simultaneously love and hate how perceptive you are,” Harry frowned. 

“It’s not exactly something I can turn off, is it?” Louis raised an eyebrow as he bit down on his apple. “Would you rather I didn’t tell you what I’ve noticed?”

“No!” Harry said a bit too forcefully. He deliberately softened his features. “This way I can estimate how long until you turn around and run away screaming.” 

“I’ve already told you that I won’t do that,” Louis opposed. 

“You don’t know what I know though,” Harry argued. 

“Fair enough,” Louis shrugged, obviously doubting that the information Harry had could make him change his mind about being friends with him. Or being anything with him, whatever Harry was willing to give. 

“You don’t believe me,” Harry observed. 

“Not really,” Louis admitted. “I think it’s the fact that you’re trying to tell me I will be terrified of you that doesn’t quite outweigh that you saved my life.” 

“What if I did that for selfish reasons though?” 

“You still did it. I don’t think somebody who’s saving lives can be inherently bad. Or as terrifying as you try to paint yourself,” Louis refused to play into Harry’s bad boy spiel. 

“I don’t like that you paint me as the hero,” Harry frowned. “What if I’m the villain?” 

“Not in my story you’re not.”

“I could turn out to be,” Harry said slowly, his voice deliberately low. “You should be more careful, Louis.” 

“Sure, Dangerous,” Louis teased. “But was I right about the eating thing?” 

“I wish you would not flat out ask me.” 

“It doesn’t seem fair though that you want to know my theories, yet you don’t want to confirm or deny my suspicions,” Louis tilted his head before taking a sip of water. 

“It doesn’t,” Harry agreed. 

“No answer is also an answer,” Louis mused, looking out the window. “You know that, right?”

“Unfortunately,” Harry groaned, but he smiled at Louis and that smile could cure any frustration in his heart. 

“Hey,” Louis exclaimed. “A couple of lads from the team mentioned they wanted to go to the beach soon. They said I could bring anyone I want with me…” 

“Are you inviting me?” Harry asked, chuckling. “Because you haven’t said the actual words.” 

“Yes, Harold, I’m inviting you,” Louis rolled his eyes. 

“Hm…” Harry considered for a moment. “Which beach? And when?” 

“Oh,” Louis tried to remember. “I think they wanted to go up to Rosemarkie after the match in a couple of weeks.” 

“I think we have a family thing that weekend,” Harry frowned. “Maybe next time…” 

“Oh,” Louis pouted. 

“Though I doubt that the team meant you should invite me when they said to invite anybody.” 

“They said what they said,” Louis shrugged with a grin. 

Against Harry’s advice, Louis was starting to really like him. He told Liam as much a few days later, when he waited for him up on the front porch of Charlie’s house after footie practice. 

“C’mon lad,” Louis grinned. “Gimme a cuddle!”

“No, thanks,” Liam grimaced, pointing at Louis sweat-drenched form. “You look and smell fresh out of a swamp, Tommo.”

“I do take offense to that, just so you know,” Louis laughed, pushing the hair stuck to his forehead back and stepping around Liam to unlock the door. “I feel like I should tell you that there’s a key hidden under that flower pot if you want to make a habit of waiting for me here.” 

“I know,” Liam smiled. “I don’t really mind sitting out here but I’ll keep it in mind for when the weather gets really bad.”

“You mean when the temperatures are freezing? Like right now?” Louis called over his shoulder as he kicked off his shoes and dropped his kit on the little bench Charlie used to sit down when he put on his shoes. He went up to his room, Liam on his tail. “I’m gonna have a quick shower but feel free to order pizza and pick a movie to watch while I’m gone.”

“Go, you stinky, stinky man,” Liam handed him the towel that had been draped over the radiator and pushed him towards the bathroom. 

“How’s it going with the impending crush, by the way?” Liam asked, shoving half a slice of his pepperoni pizza in his mouth in a single bite. 

“Ugh,” Louis sighed and flopped down on the bed dramatically. “He’s so interesting…The more I talk to him, the more I want to know about him. He’s so weird and cryptic sometimes but that just makes me like him more.” 

“So you’re talking now?” Liam chuckled.

“Yeah,” Louis had his eyes closed and a blissed smile on his face. He reached around for the pizza carton on his right and blindly tried to take a slice. Liam took pity on him and handed it to him. “Thanks. At first we were just talking in class. To the point where Mr. Banner was eyeing us, but he can’t really say much ‘cause we always ace the experiments.” Louis took a bite, chewing thoughtfully. 

“And now?” Liam asked. 

“He started sitting separately from his brothers and sisters at lunch and invited me to sit with him. He asks every time if I want to eat with him or not. It’s like he leaves me the choice and it’s honestly so nice,” Louis knew that the reason Harry left him the choice was because he wanted Louis to understand that he was dangerous, but Louis couldn’t help but think that Harry would’ve done the same under different circumstances. He was a real gentleman, very old-school. 

“Sounds like a proper fine lad,” Liam nodded. 

“He is. He’s such a gentleman, Payno. Like, he holds doors open for me and shit without having to think about it.”

“So you think he’s into you?” Liam questioned. 

“I don’t know,” Louis sighed. “Like the little gestures that I would say are gentlemanly seem like such second nature to him that I’m not sure if he’s doing it on purpose? I’ve made innuendos though that he seemed to find amusing…I’m very confused.” 

“Well,” Liam hummed. “When I’m trying to figure out if someone is into me, I usually try to see how they are about touching me? Girls seem to be more touchy-feely when they like you…Don’t know about guys though.”

Louis frowned, trying to recall a time when Harry had touched him. “Other than maybe a barely-there hand guiding me through doors…I don’t think he’s touched me.”

“Where was the hand?” Liam pulled a thoughtful face, scrunching up his puppy-face. 

“On my back, like around my waist-area,” Louis demonstrated by sitting up and circling a part of Liam’s back. 

“That’s not like, forward, but it’s also not somewhere I would touch you...Y’know, as a mate...” Liam contemplated.

“Right?” Louis frowned, taking his last slice of pizza and biting off another big chunk. 

They spent the remainder of their evening huddled up in Louis’ bed watching trashy horror movies and Louis had seldom felt so at peace in someone else’s company. 

When Louis arrived at the Academy the following Monday morning, he didn’t think much of the fact that the Styles’ car wasn’t in the car park yet. He was early, overly motivated by the good weather, basking in the fact that he actually felt a little bit of sunshine on his skin. He’d spent most of Sunday in the soft old chair by his window, trying to load up on vitamin D with a book in his hands. He’d gone to sleep early and woken up early, feeling energized and ready to take on the week. It happened so rarely that the sun came out in winter, and even then it was freezing cold. Louis stayed in the warmth of his truck for another five minutes or so before walking to class with a spring in his step. 

“You’re chipper today,” Jamie remarked as they walked to the cafeteria together, nudging Louis’ shoulder with his own. 

“The sun’s out,” Louis explained. “It’s not like we had a lot of it down in Manchester, but I’ve really missed the sunshine this winter.” 

“I always find it irritating how low in the sky it is in winter,” Jamie said.

“I’d rather have it shining in my eyes than not shining at all. And I feel like it warms me up, not just my skin but all the way through. I get cold so easily.” 

“Yeah,” Jamie nodded. “I noticed that.” 

They reached the doors and Louis looked at the table Harry had chosen for them the past couple school days. Somebody else was sitting there. Louis’ gaze wandered over to the Styles kids’ usual table to find it empty. He frowned and grabbed a tray from the lackluster stack at the end of the lunch line. 

“Look at that,” Jamie grumbled. “Styles isn’t waiting to steal you away from us today.”

“Hmpf,” Louis answered. “Looks like he isn’t.” 

“I’m not surprised. Are you?”

“A bit,” Louis took the obvious bait, his desire to know more about Harry outweighing his pride.

“You’d think the school would say something about the doctor taking his kids camping everytime the weather’s good,” Jamie complained and Louis let out a non-committal hum in lieu of an answer.

They finished grabbing their food in silence and Louis felt himself losing his appetite, like suddenly his stomach was filling up with dread instead, his hunger seeping out and pooling around his feet. He ignored the free seat next to Jamie and plopped down between Erin and Angelica instead. 

“Who spit in your tea since I saw you in Drama?” Erin asked, laughing. 

“Hm?” Louis looked up and tried for a genuine smile. “It’s nothing, really. It’s just that my stomach is kinda queasy.” It wasn’t even a lie. Erin shrugged and turned to address the group at large. 

“Who wants to join the committee for the spring formal?” she asked, overly cheery. Most of the people at their table tried to look away, suddenly occupied with their water bottles and the scratches on their trays. One guy even leaned down to retie his shoe. 

“I’ll help,” Angelica smiled. 

“If it doesn’t interfere with footie,” Mike gave in with a shrug. 

“I’ll do it too,” Jessica immediately jumped at the chance to be in a project with Michael. 

“I’m not really one for dances and such,” Louis said. “If you need something last minute I might be able to help out though.” 

“Wait,” Erin turned her upper body completely towards Louis. “You are coming though, right?” 

“Eh,” Louis chuckled uncomfortably. “I wasn’t planning on going. I’m really not much of a dancer and I’m not keen on dressing up either.” 

“You have to come, man,” Jamie said. 

“Yes,” Angelica agreed. “It’ll be lots of fun! And I’m sure you’ll find a date in no time.” Date? Louis’ eyebrows shot up to his hairline. This time it wasn’t just his appetite that was suddenly gone, his entire stomach dropped. 

“When is it anyway?” Louis asked, trying to think of an excuse on the spot. 

“April 10th.” 

“Don’t we have a game that weekend?” he tried. 

“Yeah, but the game’s on Friday and the dance is on Saturday,” Jamie smiled. “The school checked with all the sports teams before fixing the date.” 

“Great,” Louis grimaced. “Listen. I don’t really want to go, but I’ll think about it.” Honesty was always the best policy in his opinion and the fact that he was expected to bring a date made him nervous in more ways than he could count. 

“I guess I’ll take that answer for now,” Erin murmured before starting to give out tasks to the people who’d more or less volunteered to help. 

It left Louis alone with his thoughts as he slowly bit away at his sandwich. He knew he would regret it if he didn’t eat at all. He tried really hard not to think about the bottomless pit of disappointment in his stomach, tried to think even less about what, or who, had caused it. And the picture he tried to erase from his mind immediately upon conjuring it, was one of him and Harry in suits, standing next to each other under one of those cheesy flower arches Erin had mentioned needed to be arranged. He shook his head as if he could stop himself from zooming in on his and Harry’s hands clasped together. Thankfully, it was time to go to class soon. 

Angelica pulled Louis aside when they started walking to the Biology classroom. 

“So,” she started. “I have to ask you something...It’s regarding the dance.” Louis frowned at the mention of it, flashing back to the picture of him and Harry under the flowers. 

“What is it?” 

“I know that like…The boys are supposed to ask the girls and all that,” Angelica mumbled. Louis took a small step back. Was she going to ask him to go to the dance with her? Oh no. 

“I wasn’t lying when I said that I don’t want to go,” Louis said quickly. 

“I’m not trying to ask you, you twat,” Angelica laughed, closing the distance between them again. 

“You sure made it sound like you were,” Louis sighed, touching her arm lightly. 

“I was trying to ask for your advice,” Angelica rolled her eyes. 

“Oh,” Louis was startled again. How was he supposed to know how to go about asking anybody anywhere?

“I have a crush on somebody, but I don’t know if I should ask them,” she explained when Louis stayed silent. “You can’t tell anybody who it is though.” 

“Of course not,” Louis nodded, searching her eyes to see if he had rightly picked up on the little clue. He’d done it often enough to know that gender-neutral mentions of a crush usually were very deliberate. “It’s a girl, isn’t it?” he whispered. 

Angelica nodded with big eyes. “It’s...Erin,” she said so quietly that Louis wouldn’t have heard if he hadn’t guessed it before. 

“I haven’t picked up a gay vibe from her yet...You know her much better though.” Louis thought about Erin and the way she carried herself, the things she said. He could tell that Angelica was at least a little in on it with the way she’d almost immediately seen through the way he looked at Harry, now he knew for sure. Out of the girls, the one thing he knew was that Jessica was blatantly into Mike, but with Erin he had no idea…

“We kissed at a Halloween party a few months ago, but it was during spin the bottle,” Angelica confessed, blushing. “It was so...tender. But we haven’t talked about it or anything.” 

“Hm,” Louis absent-mindedly loosened his tie as he swallowed in thought. “Tender is a lovely word to describe a kiss,” Louis smiled and Angelica blushed even darker. “I think you should probably try to find out if she’s into you somehow…” 

“Is that what you’re doing with Harry?” 

“More or less,” Louis admitted, throwing his arm around her shoulders and briskly walking them towards the classroom as the last bell rang. 

“This conversation never happened,” Angelica whispered as they entered the room, her short chocolate brown curls bouncing as she turned to face him.

“What conversation?” he asked, squeezing her arm in a sideways hug before they went to their separate seats. 

“Hey, Tomlinson!” Mike called from Louis’ left, just as he’d hopped out of the car and started making his way towards the school the next morning. 

“What’s up Newton?” Louis slowed down so Mike could catch up to him. 

“I was thinking about who to invite to the dance,” Mike started and Louis let out a long sigh. “I just wanted to check if you’re calling dibs on any of our lasses.” 

“First of all,” Louis started. “I’m not planning on going to the dance. Second of all...I don’t think the girls would appreciate you assuming a guy can claim them.” 

“See,” Mike laughed. “That’s why they all love you. You’re so...good at choosing your words. Thanks for calling me out though. I’ll try to remember that.” 

“Anytime, man,” Louis clapped him on the shoulder. “Who were you thinking about asking?” 

“Oh, uh,” Mike turned to look away. “I don’t really have a crush on anyone, but I want to show one of them a good time and maybe something will come of it?” 

“I think you should ask Jess,” Louis suggested. “She’s fun and she seems to like you enough to sit next to you at lunch and watch as you ungracefully shovel that insane amount of food into your mouth everyday.” They both laughed. 

“Alright,” Mike nodded as they reached the point where their ways parted. “Thanks, mate.” 

“No worries,” Louis smiled as he turned down the hallway to his right. 

How strange it was that everybody sought his advice when he himself had no idea where he stood with Harry...And he hadn’t made any progress in finding out his secret either. It was easy to forget about that when he saw his painfully beautiful face so often, but the Styles’ car hadn’t been in the car park this morning either. Louis didn’t know if Jamie had been bullshitting the day before, but so far it checked out: Harry and his siblings hadn’t shown up and the weather was quite alright. He thought that maybe he could try and put together a list of things he’d noticed about Harry during his study period. It gave him an excuse to think about Harry, but it might also get him further along in his investigation. His curiosity hadn’t faltered since the accident, he’d just been even more curious about Harry as a person than whatever he may have been hiding.


	8. Collecting Leads

##  _“Surely only boring people went in for conversations consisting of questions and answers._  
 _The art of true conversation consisted in the play of minds.”_  
— Ved Mehta

Liam invited Louis to join his friend group’s bi-weekly FIFA tournament. He pondered over why they held it on Tuesdays as he made his way to Rosemarkie after footie practice. He’d even showered at the school, even though he usually avoided that. An old habit. He couldn’t stop himself from feeling down over another Harry-less day, so he mentally went over the list he’d stuffed inside his pocket once more. He didn’t even have the energy to pretend to himself that it would help. 

_Changing eye-colour, doesn’t eat (or drink?), super-human strength, no injuries, dangerous (or so he says), the weather affects him in some way..._

Louis had considered a few of the classic superhero tropes such as Kryptonite and radioactive spiders, maybe some sort of serum, but he had a feeling those weren’t it. Especially with how adamantly Harry had insisted that he was the bad guy in the story. Louis saw that he believed that about himself, but as he’d already told Harry, he didn’t think it was so black and white, so easy to say. The villain was often the good guy in someone else’s story and just because Harry thought he was bad, didn’t mean he actually was. After all, guilt, remorse and self-doubt were classical hero tropes. 

When Louis finally reached Liam’s house, he pulled a beanie over his wet hair and zipped up his jacket before grabbing the family size packet of salt and vinegar crisps and the bottle of coke he’d brought to the party. He hopped out of the car, jogged up to the front door on his tired feet, knocked, and waited for Liam to open the door. Instead of Liam, it was a tall ginger guy, introducing himself as Ed or “Teddy” and Louis could see why they would call him that, with his round face and kind smile. 

He was led to the living room where Liam was currently clutching a Playstation controller and yelling at the small screen in front of him. The other player seemed much more calm and collected, obviously on his way to a spectacular win. Other than the second player and Teddy, there were two more guys in the room and they shook Louis’ hand, introducing themselves as Seth and Finn. Louis remembered that Finn was the neighbour’s boy and that tiny bit of information sparked just enough of a conversation that Louis didn’t feel awkward until Liam inevitably lost his game and jumped up to give him a bear hug. 

“Tommo!” he shouted way too close to Louis’ ear. “You finally made it! I desperately need you for our team, lad.”

“Yeah, I saw that,” Louis laughed.

“We usually have Seth’s sister Leah fill in the sixth player but she was more than happy for you to take the spot,” the guy who’d just annihilated Liam said, standing up. He was much taller than all of them and looked a little older too. Even older than Louis who had a year more to his name than Liam and his friends. Seth looked especially young. “I’m Sam, by the way,” he introduced himself and shook Louis’ hand. 

“What are the rules?” Louis asked, accepting the glass of coke Liam had poured him with a silent “thanks.” 

“We play in teams of two,” Sam explained. 

“And I’m with Liam?” 

“Yeah,” Seth chuckled. “Good luck, mate.” Liam lightly hit him on the head in retaliation. 

“Randomize the team choice three times and then pick the team you like. Each of us gets to go once and we write down the goal differential and the points. Best team moves to the final, the other two battle it out,” Sam concluded his explanation. 

“Sounds good to me,” Louis nodded along. “How long do we play?” 

“Five minute halves,” Teddy smiled. “And you’re on next. Against me.” 

Louis cracked his knuckles. “Bring it on, bear.” 

They ended up losing. Even Louis’ expert skills couldn’t even out Liam’s abysmal first round. Sam and Finn performed an elaborate handshake in victory and let themselves fall onto the couch. 

“We need to come up with one of those,” Louis whispered to Liam. “We need it for when we win next time.” 

“I think they would’ve kicked me off the roster long ago if I didn’t host these tournaments,” Liam laughed. “Don’t think you’ve got a chance at winning with me.”

“Damn right, we would’ve replaced him long ago,” Finn said around a mouthful of crisps. 

“We’ll do a ‘Karate Kid’ style training montage and we’ll kick everyone’s arse in a couple of weeks, Leemo. Don’t even worry about it,” Louis said with mock confidence. 

“Suuure,” Seth patted his shoulder amicably. 

What a nice group of lads they were, Louis thought. Though Scotland seemed to be friendlier to him in that regard than England had been. 

“I was thinking,” he started, turning to Liam. “You remember that beach trip my mates from school are planning the weekend after this one? They said I could invite anyone I liked and, coincidentally, I like these lovely lads. They want to have a campfire and a little party, supposing we win the match on Friday.” 

“What is this I hear about a party?” Ed perked up, separating himself from the couch cushion he had seemingly grown symbiotic with. 

“My teammates are planning to come up to Rosemarkie in a couple weeks to hopefully celebrate our win against Grantown,” Louis addressed the group at large. “I was thinking you lads would be a good addition to the party.” 

“Who else is coming? Any fit girls?” Seth asked excitedly. 

“Sure, Seth,” Louis shrugged. “At least three.” And at least one of them is a lesbian, Louis thought as he watched the guys deflate. Or at best just not interested in guys at the moment. 

“Did you invite anybody else…?” Liam asked, an eyebrow raised suggestively. 

“Yeah.” Louis looked down. “Styles won’t make it,” he said quietly, making sure not to mention which of the Styles’ kids he was talking about. 

“I’m not surprised,” Finn chuckled bitterly, which made Louis’ head shoot up to see the expression on his face. He looked...disgusted. 

“The Styles family doesn’t come here,” Sam added cryptically. He’d used a tone which told Louis not to ask further questions. So he looked back at Liam, who just shrugged. Alright. _For some reason not allowed in Rosemarkie_ , Louis mentally added to the list in his back pocket. 

The longer Louis went without seeing Harry, the grumpier he got. And the grumpier he was, the darker the world outside of his room seemed. On Wednesday morning the sun had still been out, even though the temperature had plummeted, but by Thursday even those few minutes of sunshine at the beginning of the day were gone. As he walked to the truck, Louis considered whether he might be a Mutant, like in the X-Men, who was subconsciously controlling the weather for some reason. He’d definitely been thinking too much about superheroes since he’d started trying to figure out Harry’s secret in earnest…

His mood was inexplicably lifted when he saw a certain silver Mercedes parking in front of the school though, disproving his Mutant theory. When he saw Harry leaning against the hood of the car, he felt like his stomach jumped inside his belly, like it was pressing up against his heart and lungs...making the former skip a beat and constricting the latter. The sparse light coming through the clouds reflected off of Harry’s curls as he threw his head back, laughing at something Niall had most likely said. Louis couldn’t explain where the thought came from, but Harry looked absolutely golden.

Harry’s adopted sister stepped out from behind Niall and looked directly at Louis. He might not have noticed, his thoughts preoccupied by Harry and his treasure-like glow, but she stared at him, her petite body absolutely still like a marble statue of a ballerina and it was unsettling enough that it drew Louis’ attention to her. Her eyes were cast in a slight shadow, her head tilted forward and her stare was weirdly unfocused. Her jetblack hair, which was usually styled meticulously into a windswept pixie fantasy, was now actually being blown into her eyes by the wind but she didn’t even try to do anything against it. She just stood like a sculpture of a Greek goddess, maybe one of the muses, and Louis didn’t know what to do with himself. The last time she had stared at him, she had just winked after a few seconds and that had been it. Louis saw Harry turn toward him with a frown and then he stepped into his line of sight a second later. All that Louis could make out of the group was that Zayn had come up and he was hugging Alice from behind now, obviously talking her out of her reverie. 

The interaction was so peculiar and unsettling that Louis ended up standing next to the truck and processing what had happened for a long time after. He didn’t think he would manage to stay quite as unmoving as Alice, but it was a close thing. He barely made it to class. 

“Is Alice alright?” Louis asked, sitting down opposite Harry in the cafeteria. 

“Um...Yes?” Harry had obviously not anticipated Louis asking this. “Why?” 

“She didn’t look well in the morning,” Louis said, taking a bite of his sandwich and raising his eyebrows expectantly. 

“You noticed that,” Harry frowned. 

“Of course I did,” Louis chuckled. “She stared at me with a blank expression for a full minute. And though I was a little distracted, it would’ve been hard to ignore.” 

“What had you distracted?” Harry asked, instead of explaining what had happened. 

“You’re changing the topic,” Louis pointed out. “I’ll answer your question if you answer one of mine. How about that?” 

“I will answer one of your questions,” Harry gave in after a moment. “It might not be the first one you ask though.” 

Louis was surprised he would even get one answer. He’d assumed Harry would just change the topic again like he so often did when Louis thought it might get interesting. Louis took another bite of his sandwich and chewed thoughtfully. 

“What are you thinking?” Harry asked impatiently. 

“I’m trying to come up with a question to ask you,” Louis said truthfully. “There are so many I want to ask you, but I’m sure that you won’t answer most of them.” Harry seemed to relax a little at that, but his brows stayed furrowed in a frustrated arch. “Okay, I’ve got one.” 

“Ask away,” Harry smiled with closed lips. 

“Why weren’t you in school the past few days?”

“We went on a family trip.” Harry’s expression relaxed visibly. “Hiking by Deanich Lodge.” Louis was surprised that Jamie had apparently been right, but he tried to keep his face unrevealing. 

“That’s not what I asked,” Louis said, leaning forward a bit. He noticed that his and Harry’s hands were only a couple inches apart on the table. “That’s just what you did, not why you were gone.” He could reach out and graze his fingertips over the back of Harry’s hand at any moment, and he wanted nothing more than to do that...Yet he refrained, deeming the fact that he might actually get an answer out of those china pink lips he dreamt about too important.

“The reasons I enjoy your conversation are simultaneously the reasons I find it incredibly frustrating,” Harry sighed and his breath washed over Louis, intoxicating him out of nowhere. Even his breath was laced with the scent of wildflowers. Louis had to shake his head and lean back in his chair to try and come back to his senses. 

“Why do you think I was gone?” Harry questioned. 

“I think it has something to do with the weather,” Louis answered without thinking, still in a bit of a flowery haze. “But it’s your turn to answer the question,” he insisted, turning his head and breathing in a lungful of flower-less air.

“Fair enough,” Harry capitulated. “The good weather...makes our condition...” he furrowed his brows at the word. “It makes it harder to hide that we’re different.” 

“How?” Louis asked immediately, knowing that Harry had been vague on purpose, yet hoping to be able to ride the wave of getting at least one truth out of his vis-à-vis. Harry shook his head slightly. 

“It’s your turn. What had you distracted from Alice this morning?” 

“There’s no chance that you’ll tell me what happened, is there?” 

“No,” Harry grinned, his perfectly white teeth on display and a sparkle in his eyes. 

“Can you ask me something else?” Louis tried, feeling a familiar heat rise to his cheeks as he looked down onto the surface of the table. 

“You’re blushing,” Harry noted. 

“It’s embarrassing,” Louis admitted. 

“I won’t judge.” 

“I know,” Louis looked up into the pools of molten gold that were Harry’s eyes. “You won’t like the answer. Ask something else.” 

“Please,” Harry pouted. “Please, dear Louis, tell me what you don’t want me to know.” 

“That’s a paradox,” Louis whispered, getting lost in trying to memorize the intricacies of Harry’s irises close up. They were leaning closer over the table and Louis held his breath, afraid of what he might say under the influence of Harry’s scent. 

“Please,” Harry repeated, tilting his head in a way that made his hair fall into his face, accentuating his cheekbones and the length of his eyelashes. Louis took a shallow breath, tasting Harry’s sweet exhale on the tip of his tongue. 

“What?” Louis was completely lost, trying to take in Harry’s face and getting drawn in by the softness of his gaze over and over. 

“What distracted you, Louis?” The way that his name rolled off Harry’s tongue made Louis light-headed. 

“You,” he answered. “I missed you when you were gone and I was thinking about how golden you looked when you were laughing.” Harry took a sharp breath, the harshness of it contrasting with how softly Louis had uttered his confession. Harry frowned, his eyebrows drawn together in a steep V on his forehead. 

“You shouldn’t think these things, Louis,” Harry chastised. 

“Why not?”

“Because it’s dangerous. You shouldn’t miss me and you shouldn’t think about me like that.” 

“Well,” Louis quipped, Harry’s spell suddenly broken as he leaned away. “I don’t think you’re in charge of what I should and shouldn’t do, are you?” 

“I’m not,” Harry said and pressed his lips together, seemingly in an attempt to keep himself from saying more. 

“How about you cut the cryptic bullshit then? You keep telling me that I shouldn’t like you, yet you’ve done nothing to convince me of your alleged intrinsic evil character. Either you stop telling me you’re bad or you start acting like you are.” Louis’ voice got louder as the onslaught of words tumbled out from between his lips. He took a breath and settled back in his seat. “I know you want to make it hard for me to like you, but you telling me not to do something will only make me want to do it more.” Harry’s facial expression changed rapidly from a displeased frown to a small smile. 

“I’ve noticed that,” he chuckled, then sighed, looking over Louis’ shoulder. 

“What?” Louis asked, turning to see where Harry was looking. Jamie was seemingly about to stand up, but Angelica pulled him down by his sleeve. 

“Your personal guard thinks I’ve upset you,” Harry murmured. 

“My what?” Louis turned back laughing. 

“He saw you getting animated and wanted to run to your aid,” Harry chuckled. “Like you were some damsel in distress and I the big bad dragon.” 

“Is that it?” Louis asked immediately. “Are you a dragon?” 

“No,” Harry smiled. “It’s a tiny amount closer than Kryptonite though.” 

“Good to know.” Louis tried to fight his smile, but with the mirth sparkling in Harry’s eyes he was powerless...He simply couldn’t stay mad. 


	9. The Pictish Stone

##  _“It must be the old, darling, foolish Highlands in us, my dear,  
the old people and the old stupid stories they are telling us for generations round the fire,  
and it must be the hills about us, and the constant complaint of the sea.”_ _  
_ _— Neil Munro_

After the last practice of the week on Friday, Louis took a shower and headed straight over to Rosemarkie. When he parked his car in front of Liam’s house, he saw that the lights were all off. He went up and knocked anyway. Nobody came out but after sitting down on the porch steps for about a minute, Finn poked his head out of the side window of the neighbouring house and called Louis over, telling him that Liam had taken Billy to the hospital in Dingwall for a check-up and that they would most likely not be back soon. He suggested walking up and visiting the museum, knowing that they were open since his mum worked there, while the Paynes were gone and Louis had nothing better to do. He thanked Finn and got going. 

The short walk took him along the length of the beach for about a minute, before he took a right up the worn-down stone steps to the church grounds. He made a slight detour, walking through the graveyard and admiring the view like he’d so rarely done since he’d moved to Scotland. Soon enough the wind picked up and Louis started shivering against the cold. He pulled his jumper up over his nose and quickly jogged back to the small footpath running alongside the church building, where he was better protected from the harsh weather. He kept his pace up until he reached the doors of the museum which was located in a seemingly ordinary white house. 

Maybe it was the fact that he’d just walked by the church, but as he stepped into the quiet and dimly lit house, he was overcome with warmth and energy and felt the need to do something with his hands. He took off his beanie and resisted the urge to make a sign of the cross as he entered further into the little museum. 

“Welcome to the Groam House Museum,” a small woman with graying hair said from behind the little help desk in the centre of the first room. 

“Hi,” Louis said quietly. “Um, I was waiting for my friend Liam, but he’s not home and Finn said I should come check out the museum?” 

“Oh,” the woman, Shirley Rosách – as her name tag read – smiled warmly. “You must be Louis, yes?” He nodded. “Finn told me that you joined them for their little game night this week. It’s lovely to meet you,” she explained, stretching her hand out toward Louis. 

“Nice to meet you,” Louis reciprocated the gesture. 

“We have two exhibitions at the moment,” she explained. “They are our two continuous ones and the third exhibition room is currently being restructured for a Celtic art exhibit coming in a few weeks.” She paused, groping around on her desk for a little folder that she opened and put on the counter in front of Louis. “The Town History room is to the right and the majority of the displays date back about three hundred years. It’s a lot of architectural and political information. The room on the left has displays of the Pictish Stones and carvings found at Rosemarkie from the seventh century up and explains the cultural meanings and legends associated with them.”

“Amazing.” Louis looked down at the pamphlet and looked at the picture of a stone carved with the image of a toothy animal opening its chops on a man. “Can I take this?” he asked, gesturing toward the folder. 

“Of course, darling,” Finn’s mother smiled as she handed the folder over. “I can give you a tour if you want?” 

“No, thank you,” Louis tapped the paper in his hands. “I think I’ll have a look around alone first.” 

“Alright, I’ll be here if you have any questions of course.” 

Walking into the room, Louis immediately noticed how much brighter it was than the entrance hall. The walls were painted white and the floor was covered in a muddy green carpet. There were small lights above each of the displays, but his eye was immediately drawn to the middle of the room, where a glass case was lit by the natural golden light of the approaching sunset coming from the window in the ceiling. There were similar glass encasings along the walls of the small room and three stone pillars stood in the corners opposite from where Louis had entered. One wall had another window, looking out toward the stormy ocean, and the others were covered in colourful tapestries. Somehow the room felt homey and sacred at the same time. 

Louis walked slowly along the walls, reading the little information tablets on the ornate Pictish Stones patiently. When he got to the window, he glanced outside and saw the dark blue of the evening crawling across the waves with the clouds and quickly swallowing the few golden spots still illuminated by the sun. He turned toward the middle of the room, the glass case now mostly lit by the LEDs surrounding it, and walked over. The reddish stone in the middle of the case was the one he’d seen in the pamphlet. A wolf or bear with sharp teeth on the left, attacking the much smaller human on the right. On one side of it there were a few paragraphs explaining the archeological find and on the other side it detailed the myth surrounding it…

_This Pictish Stone is believed to hold the story to one of Rosemarkie’s most important legends. The story believes that the creature on the left shows the alpha wolf of the protectors of the clan. Many of the folk tales of this area of the Highlands revolve around a pack of shapeshifting wolves caring for the townsfolk and protecting them from unnatural evils and monsters. According to the legend, the creature on the right is of the realm of the dead and feeds on the blood of the living. The carving is believed to portray a thirteenth century clan leader of the Payne family fighting one of the “bloodsuckers.”_

Louis knew about the legends of the shapeshifters. Liam had told him they were important to the history of the town, yet it surprised him to see it written down so clearly, in a museum of all places. He was curious about this particular legend, Liam not having mentioned any type of “bloodsucker” in his story, and continued around the room. Whilst he was searching for more information on it, rain began pelting down onto the roof and Louis could hear the droplets falling onto the glass window in the ceiling. His search for more information on the legend came up empty-handed. 

“Mrs Rosách?” Louis called from the door into the entrance room. 

“Call me Shirley, dear.” 

“I read the legend with the wolf-stone,” Louis started as he walked to her desk. “And I was wondering if you could tell me more about it? Liam told me the story of the bird...What was it? A hawk?” Shirley nodded. “But I haven’t heard of the monsters they were protecting their clan from…” 

“Well, according to our legends, the people that formed our little clan here were outcasts. Renegades of the church that believed in magic. Which is why it’s particularly interesting that in spite of that many of the Pictish Stones found in our area later have Christian imagery. The people who settled here first didn’t believe in God. The grounds our church was built on once belonged to a set of many spirits.” 

“What spirits?” Louis asked, walking around the counter and silently asking permission to lean against the lower side table. 

“Nature spirits, mostly,” Shirley explained. “We believed in the magic of the sea, of the wind, of fire and earth as the most prominent energies surrounding us. It would be considered a paegan religion now, I’m sure.” 

“I’ll be honest,” Louis smiled. “I think that sounds much more realistic than anything I’ve heard surrounding Christianity.” 

“Just make sure the priest doesn’t hear you say that,” Shirley winked and her brown eyes sparkled with a youthful mirth. “The legend surrounding the stone is old, but it is the one that has been repeated the most throughout the centuries… Some newer additions to it dating back to a time my own grandfather remembered.” 

“Liam said that the protectors could transform into any animal at first, but it turned into sort of a...genetic magic?” Louis tried to recall, making the woman opposite him laugh out loud. 

“I’m not sure about the science of magic, love,” she chuckled. “But you’re right. The ability became inherent to the men of the clan.” 

“Only the men?” 

“I think so,” Shirley considered, biting the nail of her thumb. “If there ever were she-wolves, they aren’t explicitly mentioned.” 

“Hmpf,” Louis frowned. “What about the ‘bloodsuckers’? Were they all men?” 

“No,” she shook her head. “They used to be humans of all walks of life, but their souls died and made them into these blood-hungry monsters.”

“Their souls died, but they didn’t?” Louis questioned. “How are they alive then?”

“They aren’t. They need the blood of the living to sustain themselves and their undeath turned them into poisonous monsters. They hunt innocent people and feast on their lives. Their bodies run cold because the warmth of their humanity has left them,” Shirley’s voice had gone up an octave with how passionate she got at the end of that. A shiver ran down Louis’ back. 

“You said there were recent stories related to them? What are they? Vampires?” he asked, shivering again when he heard a crack of thunder from far away.

“Yes, dear, you could call them that,” she nodded to herself. “The story my grandfather told me is a young legend and perhaps less frightening than the previous tales of bloodsuckers we’ve passed on.” She took a deep breath and Louis properly heaved himself up onto the table, slightly swinging his legs as he waited for her to continue. 

“My grandfather’s father himself was part of the pack, of the men protecting Rosemarkie. He was a strong wolf, the magic in him almost as strong as the pack leader’s. He was Payne’s beta,” she recalled proudly. 

“At this time, around the middle of the eighteen hundreds, there were only three wolves in the pack and times were safe. They kept looking out for the community, but in different ways, the magics and evils that had roamed the highlands in previous centuries had been largely pushed out of the way by more and more humans settling here…

“They rarely used their wolf abilities, but on one particular night the _ciad faol,_ the alpha, called them together to do the rounds around the village. He had encountered a set of footprints that seemed peculiar and they went together to find the source.

“The tale of the bloodsuckers hadn’t been erased from their memories, yet they had only encountered one in their lifetime. A lunatic leech, wandering the Highlands alone. He had tried taking one of the young girls of the village and they had killed him in an instant. It was decades after that that they followed those footprints, expecting the night to come to a similar end…” she trailed off, playing with the golden wedding band on her finger. Louis contemplated asking something, but he let her gather her thoughts in peace, listening to the rain while she was silent. 

“What they didn’t expect to find was a group of four bloodsuckers,” she said, looking up as Louis inhaled sharply. 

“They were outnumbered,” Louis whispered. 

“Aye, they were,” Shirley nodded. “Yet it didn’t come to a fight. For a moment, they debated whether the creatures they had come upon were what they thought they were…The legends say that bloodsuckers have either crimson eyes, when they’ve just feasted, or black eyes when they are thirsting for blood. The group they’d come upon had yellow eyes and they looked calm, collected even. Nothing like the leech they had killed before. Their leader stepped forward and introduced himself, calling his company his family and saying that they wanted no harm to our clan. They claimed that they had chosen a different lifestyle to the murderous vagabonds that our old stories are about.” Her voice became low and ominous at the end. It had Louis gripping the edge of the table beside himself and leaning forward to hear the conclusion of the story. 

“Were they different?” he asked when he couldn’t take the suspense anymore. 

“The _ciad faol_ believed them, but he was cautious. He made them sign a treaty promising to stay off the clan’s land and refrain from human blood and in turn the wolves promised to live peacefully by their side,” Shirley concluded. 

“How could they refrain from human blood if that’s what gives them life?” Louis asked, confused. 

“They said that they sustained themselves purely on animal blood and claimed that to be the reason their eyes were different,” she explained. 

“Did they keep their promises?” 

“The legend says they did, but they moved away after a few decades because the humans started getting suspicious of them…They don’t age, you see?” Her voice was back to that ominous story-telling murmur now. “Their bodies are hard and cold like stone and the only things that can tear into them are their own fangs and the fangs of our wolves.” 

“Wow,” Louis whispered. His mind was running a mile a minute. _Their bodies are hard and cold like stone_ , indestructible...yellow eyes? Louis considered them more of an ochre, but they all had them. And the first time Louis had seen them they had been black as the night... 

“Are you alright, dear?” Shirley asked, laying her hand on his shoulder. Louis shivered again. “Don’t let yourself be too scared by an old hag telling tales!” Louis let out a forced laugh along with her, pictures of hard onyx stares and kind golden eyes flashing behind his own. 

“I’m alright, Sherry, thank you,” he lied. “Just a bit loopy. It happens sometimes when I don’t drink enough water…” 

“Is it because of that awful accident you had? Finn told me about that.” She turned around in her office chair and came back up with a bottle of water. “Here, have a wee drink and get yourself out in the fresh air. You’ve been here long enough…I should’ve closed the place a half hour ago.” 

She handled him out of the museum with a smacking kiss to the forehead and Louis drank down a few big gulps of water. He turned his face towards the sky, letting the rain cool him, and tried not to think about anything for a while but it was to no avail. His boots crunched on the pebble walkway as he ran towards the truck that was still parked in front of Liam’s house. He just needed to get to a safe space to think this through. 

Louis was losing it, pacing around his room, trying desperately to find sane thought to hold on to. He ran over to his backpack, fumbling to find a pencil and pulled his Harry-list out of his nightstand’s drawer. He placed the pencil between his teeth as he used both hands to straighten out the crumbled piece of his notebook and knelt down next to the nightstand. 

_Changing eye-colour, doesn’t eat (or drink?), super-human strength, no injuries, dangerous (or so he says), the weather affects him in some way, for some reason not allowed in Rosemarkie_

He ticked off the first five on the list with the new information he had from Mrs. Rosách. Then he got to the one about the weather. This one hadn’t been confirmed yet, but if Harry was a vampire, surely he couldn’t go out in the sun, right? Louis had seen enough horror films to know that vampires burned in the sun, incinerated to ash even. He left the point on the list unchecked and put a big dark checkmark next to the point about Rosemarkie. If their bodies are really hard and cold like stone, that would explain why Harry refused to touch Louis. 

Louis woke up the next morning with Green Day blasting in his ears through his earphones and frowned, pulling out the earbuds and squinting to see what time it was. He’d had a hard time falling asleep after his revelations at the museum and reading through so many pages of Wikipedia and Google search results that his head had started spinning. It was still throbbing with a dull headache but he wasn’t sure if that was because of the music he’d tried to drown his thoughts out with or if it was still just the newfound information that Harry Styles was apparently a vampire. 

After a breakfast consisting of tea and a couple handfuls of dry cereal, Louis decided to go for a walk. He took his raincoat off the hook and stomped into the forest behind Charlie’s house. His headache was still unpleasantly present, but the fresh rainy air made it easier to breathe. Here in the middle of all these old moss-covered trees, navigating around puddles on the footpath he was following, Louis found it easier to believe in the magic Shirley had told him about. Not just the fact that shapeshifters and bloodsuckers might exist, but the fact that the wind, the sea, fire and earth may be the most powerful magics in the world. That was the part that made the most sense to Louis, the fact that nature’s elements had this innate force...each of them inhabiting this old, ancient power that had to be balanced out by the other three. 

So why, if he could believe in this paegan religion, shouldn’t he believe that creatures such as werewolves and vampires existed? Witches and mermaids and faeries...They might as well be real too. Now, if Harry and his family were indeed vampires, what did that mean for Louis? 

Harry had saved his life. In Louis’ book anybody who would willingly put themselves in danger, even if Louis now knew that it wasn’t physical danger that Harry had put himself in, was a good person. Assuming that the Rosemarkian people had as good a memory as they claimed, the Styles family couldn’t be murderers. They all had ochre eyes, meaning they lived on a diet of animal blood. Louis himself ate animal meat, so what was the difference? None, he decided then and there. And as he arrived at a tiny clearing on the left side of his path and carefully sat down on a wet log, making sure his bum was covered by his coat, Louis realised that all of that barely mattered. He bit away at the water-softened skin next to his thumb as he let himself conclude what this new information really meant to him. 

About three things he was sure: First, Harry was a vampire. Second, part of him – and Louis didn’t know how powerful that part may be – was lusting after Louis’ blood. Third, Louis was utterly and irrevocably in love with Harry Styles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can find a picture of the Pictish Stone described in this chapter [here.](https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3.spanglefish.com/s/213/pictures/scran-and-stones/img0083-version-2.jpg) And find out more about Pictish Sculptures and fragments on the website of the [Groamhouse Museum.](http://www.groamhouse.org.uk/index.asp?pageid=102238)


	10. Electric Currents

##  _“To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow –  
this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” __  
__―_ _Elizabeth Gilbert_

After Louis’ realisation, his walk home seemed way longer than he’d anticipated. He attributed that to the fact that he was much calmer now than he’d been when he first stepped out of the house. He was just beginning to wonder if he’d somehow managed to get lost on a single path, when the tan bricks of his childhood home became visible through the thick woods in front of him. 

The rain had stopped by now. And if it hadn’t been for the fact that the noise of the droplets of water hitting the leaves of the trees surrounding him had ceased, Louis was sure he would’ve missed the rustling of something behind him. He stopped, turning around slowly. Should he call out? His eyes wandered over the varying shades of green melting together in front of him and locked onto an indistinguishable brown shape about a hundred yards away from him. It moved, lifted it’s head and looked directly at Louis. Was this the right time to remember he’d promised Charlie not to go into the woods? 

Louis took a sharp breath, staring at the giant bear in front of him for a few seconds before slowly backing away. He could see how people would report seeing a creature of this size to the police. The bear started backing away now too, turning on its heel and running in the opposite direction of Charlie’s house. When it was out of sight, Louis turned and ran back inside. He leaned against the closed door, breathing heavily. What a weird fucking weekend. He added this encounter to the list of things he would likely never tell his father about. 

By the time Louis drove to school on Monday, he’d come to terms with the fact that the world around him was nothing like he’d thought. It was strange even to him how quickly he’d accepted that vampires existed and that he was in love with one. But he’d always been like that...stubborn, his mother would say—Consistent, is what he preferred to call this trait of his. Once he’d made his mind up about something, he stuck to that decision.   
  
He wondered if any of the things he was learning at school were even true, if Harry secretly laughed at Mr. Banner’s lessons in Biology because they didn’t apply to him. He figured he wouldn’t have to wait for long to ask him about it though. When he walked through the door to the cafeteria he excused himself from the lunch queue and walked straight up to the table Harry was sitting at. 

“Care for a walk?” Louis asked, inclining his head towards the glass doors at the back of the room that lead to the scarcely used picnic tables outside. 

“Alright,” Harry agreed, rising to his feet. He held the door open for Louis, lightly guiding him through like he’d done countless times before. Louis wondered if he might stop doing that when he knew that he’d been found out. Or if he might start doing other things… 

“I just want some fresh air and…,” Louis trailed off, looking for a good spot to get away with Harry. 

“Privacy?” Harry asked, frowning slightly. 

“Yeah. Can you read my mind?” Louis laughed nervously and Harry let out a cackle that didn’t quite go with the solemn person Louis had come to know him as. 

“Truly, there is nothing I want more than that,” Harry sighed, but Louis didn’t pay him any mind. 

“There’s a small path into the woods over there, right?” Louis asked, pointing away from the football field in front of them. 

“There is,” Harry nodded. “Do you think it’s smart to go into the woods though?” 

“I saw one of the bears on the weekend,” Louis told him conversationally. 

“You _what?_ ” Harry grabbed his arm and stopped him. A shiver went down Louis’ spine and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the touch or the shrillness of Harry’s tone. 

“I went for a walk, to sort my thoughts out, and on the way back I saw the bear. It was far from me but it ran away when I looked at it,” Louis shrugged. 

“How do you get yourself into these situations? Do you magically attract monsters and misfortune?” 

“Maybe…” Louis considered. “It didn’t hurt me though. And I’m pretty sure you could protect me from a bear,” he shrugged, walking towards the path with quick steps and smiling when Harry caught up to him. 

“Is that why you want privacy?” Harry asked. “Because if you’ve figured me out, you would know that it’s not safe to be alone with me, Louis.” 

“Hm,” Louis hummed and continued into the forest until the school’s buildings were out of sight. “I’m not scared of you, Harry,” he said as he stopped. 

“You should be,” Harry said from behind him. He was further away than Louis had thought, so he turned around and took a step back in his direction.

“I know what you are, Harry,” Louis whispered. 

“How did you find out?” Harry looked away frantically, avoiding Louis’ gaze. 

“I went to the museum,” Louis answered, and that got Harry to look at him with his eyebrows raised. “...in Rosemarkie. They’ve got stone carvings about your kind there.” Louis waited to see if Harry had anything to say to that, but he remained silent.   
“You’re lighting fast, you never eat or drink, you’re indestructible and incredibly strong...Your skin is pale and though I’ve never touched it, I assume it’s cold and hard. You don’t go out in the sun and you speak like you’re from another time.” 

“What am I, Louis?” Harry hissed, stepping closer. 

“You’re a vampire,” Louis muttered, and part of him worried that Harry would break out in a laugh and declare him insane. 

“Are you scared?” Harry asked, a deep sadness behind his eyes. Louis took the question as a confirmation. 

“Not of you,” Louis answered and Harry took a breath to say something. “I know you think I should be, but I know you won’t hurt me.” 

“You need to ask me the most elemental question, Louis,” Harry demanded. 

“And which question is that?” Louis asked.

“How do we sustain ourselves?” Harry filled him in, just barely audible. 

“You don’t drink human blood,” Louis said, crossing his arms in front of his chest stubbornly. “The legend says vampires with yellow eyes, although I would argue yours are more golden, only drink animal blood.” 

“Did you read that at the museum too?” Harry asked, taken aback. 

“No,” Louis shook his head. “But Shirley Rosách’s grandfather met some yellow-eyed ‘bloodsuckers’—or so she told me…” 

“The people of Rosemarkie have a long memory,” Harry nodded. “Shirley’s grandfather was a smart man. The pack was right not to trust us. Their offspring still are right not to trust us.” 

“Wait, it was you?” Louis let his arms fall down and leaned forward, excited to figure out another part of the puzzle. “You were the ones that settled here at the end of the nineteenth century?”

“Yes,” Harry nodded. “It was the beginning of the 20th century, actually. But that’s irrelevant, isn’t it?” 

“Why?”

“Surely you don’t want anything to do with me now. Knowing what an abominable mistake of nature I am,” Harry jeered. 

“What are you on about? Of course I want everything to do with you,” Louis half-shouted, exasperated.

“Louis, I’m a danger to you every minute you spend with me. Every second you’re in my vicinity,” Harry tried to reason. 

“I don’t care.” 

“I have killed people before,” Harry admitted. Louis swallowed at that. 

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, stubbornly. 

“I wanted to kill you.” Harry’s voice was a threatening whisper now. 

“Yet you saved my life instead,” Louis stepped even closer to Harry and reached out to touch his arm. Even through the coat he was wearing, Harry seemed to emit no warmth at all. 

“You have no idea how hard it is for me to stay away from you,” Harry muttered now. “I tried. I left. I went all the way to Norway. But then I thought ‘Who is this little kid to drive me away from my family?’ and foolishly, I came back.” 

“How could I have the power to drive you away?” Louis asked, confused. 

“You have more control over me than anybody else,” Harry admitted. It made Louis’ heart flutter, for a reason he didn’t know. “I want your blood more than anybody else’s, yet I have this incredible urge to protect you at all cost. I don’t know yet which is stronger.” Louis shivered again. “Are you scared now?” 

“Yes,” Louis admitted, not letting go of Harry’s arm just yet, instead squeezing it. 

“Good,” Harry nodded, glancing at Louis’ arm on his sleeve like he’d just noticed it. 

“I’m not scared of you or what you will do to me. You’ve proven to me that you won’t hurt me,” Louis elaborated. “I’m just scared of losing you.” 

“Do you really feel that way about me?” Harry asked. 

“I do,” Louis confessed and it felt at once like too much and not enough. Like he’d just promised Harry the rest of his life and yet his life seemed insignificant in a deal of this monument. 

“And so the lion fell in love with the lamb,” Harry whispered, tracing his cold fingers over the back of Louis’ hand. 

“What a stupid lamb,” Louis sighed, wondering if Harry’s senses were really as hightened as the internet forums had claimed—Wondering if Harry had heard his heart stutter at the words ‘in love.’

“What a sick, masochistic lion,” Harry laughed bitterly. “We should get back to class,” he said after a while. 

“Alright,” Louis nodded, sliding his hand down Harry’s arm and offering it for him to take. Harry closed his eyes for a couple seconds and determinedly grabbed Louis’ smaller hand in his. It felt electric, this tiny touch. It was so gentle, such an insignificant gesture in the grand scheme of everything, but to Louis...To Louis, Harry’s icy fingers wrapping around his meant the world. 

They walked back in silence, dropping their hands when they were within sight of the other students. Louis felt a sting in his stomach at that, but it didn’t surprise him, it was in unspoken agreement. 

“Are you going to answer my questions now?” Louis wondered, as they settled into their seats in the Biology lab.

“Only if you answer mine,” Harry countered.

“You’ve had your ways of getting me to answer you. Don’t act like I’m remotely as mysterious as you are,” Louis laughed. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Harry chuckled along. 

Mr Banner interrupted them as he strutted into the classroom brandishing a DVD case in his hand. A hush fell over the room promptly followed by an excited murmuring. 

“Alright everyone, settle down,” he gestured wildly for his students to be silent. “We’re going to be watching a film about the cell cycle to sum up what we’ve learned before the quiz on Wednesday.” Everybody groaned at the mention of the quiz, the elation over getting to watch a film slowly fading from the atmosphere of the room. 

“Michael, can you please set up the ol’ projector? I’m no good with this new-fangled computer stuff. You know, when I was in school our teacher would haul an actual projector with a film roll into the classroom…” Mr Banner rambled on as the students who sat by the windows, including Harry, drew the curtains shut. 

Soon it was dark in the room, the only light coming from the projector mounted to the ceiling and Louis felt like he could taste how close Harry was on his skin. They exchanged a look, burning with something unknown and Louis raised an eyebrow when he saw that they had both instinctively crossed their arms in front of their chests. Louis knew he was doing it to keep himself from chasing the electricity he’d already felt from Harry’s touch on the way back from the forest. He wondered if Harry felt the same. He forced himself to stare ahead but there was no chance he could use the film to revise the topic for the quiz. All it reminded him of was that he and Harry had aced the experiment on the phases of mitosis last week. Mr Banner had even told Harry to let Louis have a go, but Harry had immediately defended Louis, telling their teacher that Louis had identified more than half the slides. Louis had preened at the attention then, and he was distracted by the thought of Harry’s proud smile now. 

Surely the tension between the two of them would dissipate within an hour, Louis thought after five minutes. Then he thought it again after ten. And again after fifteen, and after eighteen and twenty-one...Or maybe it wouldn’t, he concluded after twenty-four minutes. When crossing his arms started straining his muscles, he changed his position so he was sitting on his hands instead. Harry was still as only a marble statue could be, the strain only visible in his furrowed brows. Once he’d chanced a glance Harry’s way, Louis couldn’t keep from looking. 

He’d read on Friday night that part of the vampire’s allure was how beautiful they were. Researchers had found reason to believe the ‘myth’ had originated from beautiful women seducing men to commit adultery and the men looking to find an out. ‘It was an evil vampyric monster that seduced me darling, I fell prey to a huntress.’ Staring at Harry’s profile, Louis wondered how many of these men had actually encountered vampires and how likely they would’ve been to survive. He had no doubt he would follow Harry to the ends of the earth, so he couldn’t blame any human that did ever fall for the charms of a vampire. Was that how Harry had found his end? Or his new beginning? 

Louis was pondering a series of questions he could now actually ask, yet his fingers tingled not only from the pressure of his weight on them, but with the need to be closer to Harry. 

“Well, that was certainly something,” Harry murmured what felt like an eternity later. He got up to open the curtains while Louis stretched. 

“Understatement of the century,” Louis yawned, interlacing his fingers and pushing his arms away from his body. 

“How would you know?” Harry winked. 

They walked out together and Louis shivered against the cold as he quickly put his jacket on. 

“Do you feel cold, ever?” he asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. 

“Not really,” Harry mused. “I can feel the difference in temperature but it doesn’t affect me.” 

“I wish I could say that about myself,” Louis looked up at Harry as they were walking side by side. Their arms brushed together and even that pseudo-contact felt sparkling. “I get cold so easily.”

“I suppose my condition has its perks,” Harry shrugged, coming to a halt at the kerb of the pavement leading to the car park. They stood in silence for a few moments.

“See you,” Louis smiled, as he turned towards where his car was parked and left Harry to walk towards his own. He turned around, walking backwards and waved, Harry waving back, until he ran into someone and quickly turned to look where he was going. He could hear Harry laugh though, and that sound was magical.


	11. Sweet Crimson

##  _“What is happening to me happens to all fruits that grow ripe._ _  
_ _It is the honey in my veins that makes my blood thicker, and my soul quieter.”_  
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Good morning! Is there anything you miss about Manchester?” Harry asked when Louis got in his car that morning. 

“Wait, are we not going to address that you’re picking me up from my house?” Louis countered, fastening his seat belt. “How do you even know where I live?” 

“You answer the question first,” Harry insisted, pulling out from his parking position and accelerating to a much faster tempo than Louis usually dared to go in these streets. 

“Do you promise to answer mine?” Harry nodded. “Alright. I miss my mum a bit, and my friends Cal and Oli. But other than that, I’ve come to find Fortrose much more exciting than I ever thought I would.” 

“Tell me about your mum,” Harry said immediately. Louis just cleared his throat, reminding him that he’d asked something as well. “Um, I kind of...I followed your scent?” 

“You _what_?” Louis turned his upper body so he could face Harry. “So it is true, about the heightened senses?”

“I don’t know what you read, but yes, we do have heightened senses,” Harry nodded, locking eyes for a brief moment. “I can see better, uh, smell better and hear better. My sense of touch isn’t really more sensitive and tasting is only evolved for blood. Anything _you_ would eat tastes pretty much the same. I guess you could compare it to the dullness of dirt or...cardboard.” 

“But you do taste differences in blood?” Louis was fascinated. The theme was kind of morbid, and he could see Harry drawing his brows together in thought, but Louis wanted to know everything there was to know. 

“Yes,” Harry nodded, deciding that was enough of the topic. “Tell me about your mum,” he repeated. 

“Her taste?” Louis laughed, but Harry didn’t join. “C’mon! That was funny.” 

“Okay,” Harry gave in easily with a small chuckle. “How are you so okay with this? With every answer to every question I feel like I’ll scare you away...Yet you just...You just accept anything I tell you and ask even further.” Louis thought about that a little bit. 

“There’s two reasons I think...I don’t know if it’s okay to say this, but I find it all very fascinating,” he paused, Harry shrugging like he didn’t know if that was okay either. “And the more important thing is that I know what it’s like to be different. I’m no mythical creature of the night – although to some I might as well be – but my gay experience has been littered with alienation. So I guess I just don’t want you to ever feel like who you are is too... _other_ to talk about.” 

Harry shut off the engine and turned to Louis with a soft expression on his face. “You are the kindest person I’ve ever gotten the pleasure to know. And I know Esme, so that says a lot.” 

“Esme’s your adoptive mum, right?” Louis asked. “You’ve mentioned her before.” 

“Yes,” Harry smiled. “All I wanted was for you to tell me about your mum, and now you’ve turned it around so I’m telling you about mine.” 

They got out of the car laughing and Louis wondered what the small gathering next to them was—Until he saw Gemma get out of the driver’s seat of a red Ferrari with the rest of Harry’s siblings following. He just turned toward Harry, wondering how he hadn’t realised that Harry picking him up meant that the others had to take a different car. And to think that Louis had thought Harry’s silver Mercedes was showy…

“It’s a bit much, isn’t it?” Harry murmured into Louis’ ear as he was guiding him away from the crowd. 

“I knew you were rich but...wow,” Louis let out a low whistle. 

“Material belongings accumulate over the years,” Harry said with a shrug. “Gemma wasn’t too happy when I told her that I won’t be playing chauffeur for them today. It was her who bought the flashy thing though, so she only has herself to blame.” Harry turned in the direction of his sister, like she had called him. “Oh, you know it’s true,” he laughed quietly and she struck her tongue out at him. Louis thought that this was the first time he’d actually seen Gemma act like a human.

“I’m going to have to spend lunch with them to make amends for my treacherous actions in the morning, but I’ll wait for you after your practice, alright?” Harry asked, fixing a strand of hair that was out of place in Louis’ fringe with featherlight fingers. 

“Okay,” Louis whispered, breathing in the flowery scent of Harry’s skin. They shared a private smile and Louis really wanted to kiss Harry at that moment. He wanted to see if the sweet scent translated to just as sweet a taste, if Harry’s lips were soft like they looked or hard and ungiving like his hands… But it wasn’t going to be like that any time soon, he guessed. It was dangerous territory they were moving in now. So they slowly stepped away from each other, breaking the tension and waving, before turning around to walk to their respective classes. 

When Louis walked out of the changing rooms in the afternoon, he saw Harry casually standing by the bike stands and dragged his tired feet over. 

“Hi,” Louis smiled, fiddling with the beanie he’d pulled over his wet hair. 

“You don’t usually shower at school, do you?” Harry asked, kicking himself off the metal pole he had been leaning against. 

“I try to avoid it,” Louis admitted, looking down. “But I also try to avoid stinking up my...um…” Louis struggled to think what Harry was to him. “I didn’t want your car to reek of my sweat.” 

“How considerate,” Harry laughed, then frowned. 

“What’s wrong?” Louis asked, hopping down the steps to the car park. He turned to look at Harry as he continued walking backwards. 

“That Murray boy is starting to get on my nerves…” Harry grumbled. 

“Jamie? What did he do?”

“He’s constantly thinking about you like you’re his property. I can’t stand it,” Harry hissed. 

“Thinking about me?” Louis thought back to a conversation they’d had some time ago in the cafeteria where Harry had said something similar about Jamie. “You’ve said that before. I was assuming you were guessing, but it sounds like you know for sure. How?”

Harry opened the car door for Louis and walked around the back of it before getting in. “There’s no point in keeping it a secret now, is there?” 

“I guess not,” Louis turned towards him expectantly after stuffing his bag in the space between his feet. “So how does it work? Can you read everyone’s mind?” 

“I don’t really know how it works...Carlisle has a theory that in the process of changing into what we are, our most prominent talents get enhanced as well. Maybe I was already good at reading others when I was...human.” Harry took the turn out onto the main road with ease and once again went much faster than Louis would dare. “I can hear everybody’s thoughts in my head...Like a constant humming. People I know and am familiar with are easier to distinguish even over larger distances. Mostly it works when the person is within my regular earshot.” 

“You can hear everyone's thoughts?” Louis asked, suddenly mortified at the memory of how many sappy things he’d thought about Harry in the past weeks, especially what he’d thought just this morning... 

“Every single person—except you. That’s why I laughed when you asked me if I could read your mind the other day,” Harry admitted. 

“Wait, what’s wrong with my thoughts then?” Louis wondered.

“I tell you I can read minds and you ask what’s wrong with your thoughts because I can’t hear them,” Harry chuckled. 

“I’m glad I amuse you. And I’m okay with you not knowing my every thought – it’s a relief, actually – but I do wonder how that can be. Are there other people like me?” Louis asked. 

“I’ve never met anyone else who’s thoughts I didn’t hear, no,” Harry shook his head slightly. 

“So if it’s based on talents…Can others in your family do anything crazy like you?” 

“You just keep the questions coming, don’t you?” Harry smiled, turning in his seat and Louis realised that the car was already parked in front of his house and he hadn’t even noticed. Harry was a reckless driver, though Louis assumed he would be too, if he was immortal. “If I answer yours today, will you promise me to answer all of mine tomorrow?” 

“Okay,” Louis nodded eagerly. 

“I’m the only one who can read minds. Zayn has a similarly empathetic talent...He has the ability to influence the atmosphere of a room. He can calm a roaring fight and start an uprising in a funeral home.” Louis snorted a laugh at that. “Alice has a very interesting talent. She can see the future. But it’s not a very reliable talent because the future is dependent on so many things and decisions.” 

“Fuck, that’s cool,” Louis whispered. “Did she see me then?” 

“Alice’s visions are very subjective sometimes,” Harry frowned. 

“Whatever the hell that means…” Louis grumbled. “You’re just as cryptic now as you were before I found out your secret.” 

“Maybe it comes with age…” Harry laughed. 

“How old are you?” Louis asked immediately, realising that Harry had probably lived many lives before he met him. 

“Seventeen,” Harry said with a cheeky smile. 

“And how long have you been seventeen?” 

“A while,” Harry scrunched his nose, trying to hide his pleased grin. “I was born in 1890 and...changed in 1907,” he elaborated when Louis just stared expectantly. 

“And Gemma? She’s really your sister isn’t she?” Louis wondered. 

“Yes,” Harry started, but suddenly turned to look forward. “Fuck,” he cursed under his breath. 

“What?” Louis asked, trying to see what Harry was looking at. He saw the far-off headlights of a car coming towards them after a few seconds. “What is it?”

“Complications,” Harry murmured. “I should go, you have visitors.” 

“Oh,” Louis squinted his eyes trying to distinguish the car, but gave up, checking the time instead. “Oh wow, we’ve been sitting in here for a while.” He gestured toward the dashboard. “I guess I’ll see you in Biology tomorrow?” 

“I’ll pick you up in the morning,” Harry corrected with a smile. “I’m skiving off Biology tomorrow.” 

“Alright,” Louis smiled back and clambered out of the car. 

“Is something wrong with yer truck?” Billy asked, when Liam helped him out of the car and into the wheelchair Louis was holding in place. 

“No, why?” Louis wondered. 

“Because you aren’t using it,” Billy laughed. 

“Oh. Harry just picked me up on his way this morning,” Louis lied. If he knew where Harry lived, he would’ve known if that even made sense. 

“Doesn’t he live outside of town?” Liam asked, ever so helpful. 

“Hm,” Louis grumbled, unlocking the door. “Come in, come in. I don’t know when Charlie will be back though,” he changed the topic. 

“Hopefully by the time the game starts,” Billy said. 

“Yeah, Dad is using you for your flat screen,” Liam laughed. 

“That’s fine,” Louis shrugged. “Can I get you anything?” 

“Why don’tcha look for the right channel, Li? I’ll help Louis with the drinks,” Billy suggested and Liam grumbled something about how it would make much more sense the other way around. Louis agreed, but quietly made his way to the kitchen with Billy’s wheels squeaking behind him anyway. 

“What can I get you?” Louis asked, facing the refrigerator. 

“Water’s fine, maybe I’ll have a can later.” 

Louis nodded, starting the tap before he poured himself and Liam a glass of coke each.

“You should really reconsider who you’re befriending, Louis,” Billy said then. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Louis’ eyebrows shot up towards his forehead. He’d expected Billy to want to say something to him, but his bluntness was startling.

“That boy driving you around...He’s no good for you, trust me,” Billy went even further. “That family is not who they seem to be.” 

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t think it’s any of your business who I befriend,” Louis bit back. “Harry has been nothing but kind to me. And you may be the alpha over in Rosemarkie, but you’re not mine.” 

Billy physically backed off at that. “Maybe I underestimated your knowledge,” he admitted and Louis just huffed, passing by him with all three drinks and engaging Liam in a conversation about their next FIFA tournament immediately. 

The whole evening felt all kinds of off to Louis after that interaction. He tuned out for most of the game, considering if Liam had heard what he’d said to Billy...Since Liam was being awfully distant all night. Well, Billy had no right to make those decisions for him, Louis thought, stubbornly crossing his arms and sitting in the living room quietly until the Paynes left.

Harry had held up on his promise and picked Louis up for school in the morning, immediately bombarding him with trivial questions like ‘What is your favourite colour?’ and ‘Which flavour of crisps do you prefer?’ Louis played along trying to answer as truthfully as he could. Sometimes he tried to sneak a question of his own in there, claiming that Harry was much more interesting than his first concert or the last book he’d read, but Harry did not let up. 

By lunch the questions got a bit more difficult to answer…When did Louis realise he was gay? Who was his first crush? Did he plan to get married? And the infamous question about his mum…By the time the bell rang, he’d almost forgotten that Harry wasn’t going to go to Biology today.

“Why are you mitching off of Biology again today?” Louis asked, getting up with his bag and watching Harry play with the flaps of his tie. 

“No questions today, Louis,” Harry grinned up at him. “You’ll see once you’re there…Or you could just stay with me?” he pouted and Louis seriously considered it. 

“I’m not doing it if you don’t tell me why,” he pouted back. 

“Fair enough,” Harry nodded. “Go, or you’ll be late!” 

Louis really appreciated Harry not pressuring him into skiving off with him. It just wasn’t something he wanted to start doing because he felt as though it could start a whole avalanche of bad decisions. The second he scurried into his seat, he understood why Harry wasn’t there and regretted coming in after all. There on the blackboard in the crooked letters of Mr Banner’s handwriting it said “DETERMINING YOUR BLOOD TYPE” and Louis wanted to sink beneath the floorboards so the earth could swallow him whole. His head started spinning before anything even happened and he watched with glazed-over eyes as the volunteer, Mike, poked his finger and squeezed two drops of blood onto a microscope slide. Louis closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose to try and get rid of the dizziness, but it didn’t help. He weakly raised his hand. 

“Yes, Louis?” 

“Mr Banner, I don’t feel well. Can I go outside, please?” Louis murmured, eyes still closed. 

“God, there’s one every year, isn’t there,” Mr Banner chuckled. “James, can you make sure Louis gets to the nurse?” 

“Yes, of course, Sir.” Louis heard Jamie jump up from his seat and come up beside him. “Can you walk?” 

“Yes, Jamie, I’m not paralyzed. Just dizzy. No need to carry me,” Louis snapped. He took the hand offered to him though and let Jamie put his arm around his middle. 

They awkwardly shuffled along the way to the office building but not even the fresh air could help Louis feel better. 

“Can you just let me sit down for a bit?” Louis asked. 

“Um, alright,” Jamie nodded to himself and helped Louis sit down on the kerb, where he promptly leaned on his side and let his head rest against the cold pavement. 

“What happened?” Louis heard a familiar voice ask from far away. 

“He got dizzy and Mr Banner said to take him to the nurse,” Jamie answered begrudgingly. “He wanted to sit down for a bit.” 

“Louis?” Harry asked, much nearer now. 

“Go away,” Louis murmured. “I’m fine.” 

“You’re green in the face, I don’t think that qualifies as ‘fine’ for humans,” Harry snickered. 

“What do you know about humans?” Louis asked. “Are you laughing at my misery?” 

“Just a little,” Harry admitted. He helped Louis sit back up and put his icy hand on his forehead. 

“Mmh,” Louis hummed, pushing his head towards the welcome coolness of it. 

“I’ll take it from here,” Harry said to Jamie, who went to protest, but ultimately just turned away grumbling to himself. “That kid is really getting on my nerves,” Harry sighed.

“Why? What is he thinking?” Louis asked, turning Harry’s hand around so the even cooler back of it was against his forehead. It was just as hard as the concrete Louis had rested his head against before, but so much smoother and gentler.

“Let me carry you to the nurse,” Harry said, already threading his arms underneath Louis’ thighs. 

“No, stop, I can walk,” Louis protested, but Harry had already effortlessly lifted him off the ground. He was carrying him in front of his body, all of Louis’s weight on his arms as he tried to keep a semblance of distance. “Let me down, Harry. This is humiliating.” Louis closed his eyes.

“And fainting because you saw some blood isn’t?” Harry snorted a laugh. 

“Touché,” Louis grimaced. “Do I weigh nothing to you? I can barely even feel you stepping.” 

“There’s no difference between you and a feather,” Harry said and Louis could hear the smirk in his voice. “Can you open the door?” Louis opened his eyes and wondered how they had gotten to the office so quickly but pushed down the handle of the door and let Harry kick it open. 

“Oh dear,” the secretary said. 

“We did blood tests in Biology,” Harry explained as she rushed to open the door to the nurse’s room for them. 

When they entered Harry put him down on the examination table and Louis almost felt bad for feeling better already. The nurse put down her book and glanced at Louis. 

“Blood types?” she asked.

“Yes,” Harry nodded, scrunching his nose up to try and hide his smile. 

“Alright, love,” the nurse turned to Louis. “Just lie down for a while and keep this on your forehead.” She handed him an ice pack and Louis would’ve preferred Harry’s hands but he was going to take what he could get. “It’ll pass soon.” 

“I know,” Louis murmured. “It’s already better now that I’m away from the scene of the crime.” Harry chuckled, covering it up with a cough. 

“Why don’t you get back to class, young man?” the nurse asked Harry. 

“Mr Banner said I should wait and make sure Louis gets home alright,” Harry said with enough authority that the nurse didn’t outright question it. Another minute or so later, Jamie hauled in the next patient and Louis got up to make room for her. He handed the cool pack over and slipped out of the room after Harry, who somehow convinced the secretary to let them leave early. 

“Should I carry you or will you be alright walking?” Harry asked, mirth sparkling in his eyes. 

“I’ll be fine, thank you very much,” Louis rolled his eyes. 

“Are you coming back to class?” Jamie asked from behind them. 

“Back to all the blood?” Louis questioned. “No, thank you.” 

“Right,” Jamie scratched his wrist self-consciously. “See you tomorrow then, yeah?” 

“Sure,” Louis nodded. 

“Bye, Lou.” 

Jamie took Louis aside after practice the next day, before he could walk out to meet Harry. 

“Hey, can I talk to you for a wee bit?” he near-whispered, placing a hand on Louis’ shoulder. 

“What’s up? Anything wrong with my play today?” Louis asked, thinking it was about the upcoming game. 

“No, not at all. You were fantastic,” Jamie praised. 

“What’s this about then?” 

“Uhm, I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but are you and Styles like…a thing now?” Jamie asked. 

“I don’t think that’s any of your business, James,” Louis straightened his spine and took a step back. 

“No, no,” Jamie reached for Louis’ arm, frantically trying to find his words. “It’s fine, if you like...Want to go out with him or whatever. I just...I want to tell you that I don’t like the way he looks at you, at all.” 

“What, it’s okay if I’m gay but you don’t like the way Harry looks at me?” Louis hissed. “That doesn’t make much sense, captain.” 

“It’s just...He gives me the creeps and looks at you like he wants to eat you or something,” Jamie sputtered. Louis cackled. 

“Thank you for your concern, but I can take care of myself,” Louis said coldly and walked out into the rain.


	12. The Ace up the Sleeve

##  _“...for he learns to play with good temper and unselfishness,  
to play in his place and 'play the game,'  
and these are the best of training for any game of life.”_ _  
_ _— Robert Baden-Powell_

Even with their little spat, Louis knew Jamie relied on him heavily for the match that Friday. They had barely talked for the remaining days of the week, but Louis knew that he had trained hard and he was going to give his all—Not for Jamie, only a little bit for the team, who’d been awkwardly trying to make peace between the two of them without knowing what had actually transpired, but mostly for himself. Football was his thing, he knew he was good at it and he knew that if anybody was going to make the winning shot against their sworn rivals, it was going to be him. 

He warmed up with everybody, first spotting Harry in the crowd and waving to him, then finding his father on the second lap around the field and responding to his acknowledging nod with one of his own. They stuck to their plan, leaving Louis on the bench for the first half of the game, so he pulled on a cuddly hoodie and tried to keep his legs warm as best as he could. They weren’t playing a bad game, but Louis could see how well the teams knew each other. They were playing strategies on top of strategies simply because they assumed Grantown would figure out their play. Louis thought they would be better off thinking less and going straight for whatever they wanted to do, but he wasn’t in there to give any such advice. 

It was by no means the Champion’s League, but seeing this team of teenagers he considered himself part of out on the field kept Louis on the edge of the bench throughout the first half. He was biting his nails every time Grantown crossed the middle line into their side of the pitch in possession of the ball and jumping up enthusiastically each time one of his teammates got even close to a goal. As it was, the teams seemed perfectly balanced and with five minutes left to half-time, neither had scored. Louis was jumping up for the nth time, anticipating the first goal of the match, only to be disappointed yet again. He glared at the rival keeper’s yellow jersey and startled when he heard a deep voice behind him. 

“When do you get to play?” Harry murmured, standing behind the gate in the same black hoodie with the school’s logo that Louis was wearing. 

“The second half,” Louis smiled. “You look good in that, by the way.” He tried to keep his eyes on the pitch, hoping not to miss anything, but couldn’t resist taking in Harry dressed so casually. “I much prefer the silk shirts and floppy bow ties, but this is really good on the eyes as well.” 

“I had to represent where my allegiances lie, didn’t I?” Harry chuckled. “I would’ve worn a shirt with your face on it, but Alice said that’s too much.” 

“What does Alice know about fashion, huh?” Louis smirked back over his shoulder. 

“She’s only got like 3 degrees in it,” Harry murmured and Louis tucked the information away to ask about later. He smiled, eyes lingering on Harry for a few seconds before turning back to the game just in time to see Jamie stumble and lose the ball to one of Grantown’s players. Louis, who was already standing, felt the need to jump up again. 

“Fuck,” he cursed under his breath as he saw the center forward player he would replace soon struggling to keep up. Erik was out of breath, having played the first half giving a hundred and ten percent knowing he was going out for the second, but he had miscalculated his energy and was swiftly running out. “Goddamn, he’s not going to catch up,” Louis mumbled to himself. He glanced at the clock and saw there was the better half of a minute left before halftime. 

“I’m not Alice, but you’re probably right,” Harry said from behind him and Louis startled again, already having forgotten he was there. “He thinks he might have an asthma attack.” 

“Shit,” Louis cursed, seeing Erik struggle to a halt and starting to cough. Mike in the goal looked over with just as much concern as Louis, his attention pulled from the ball for exactly the one second that Grantown needed to get the ball into the net. “Oh fucking shit, God fucking damn it!” Louis shouted over the roar of the rivals’ supporters, sprinting to the bag where he knew Erik kept his inhaler in case he needed it, grabbing it and running over even before the ref blew the game off. 

Louis helped Erik to the changing rooms where they met with the team to strategize for the second half. 

“Thanks, man,” Erik turned to Louis, still coughing slightly. 

“No worries, mate.” Louis gently clapped him on the shoulder and sat him down. 

“I haven’t had one of these in a while, I forgot how much they suck,” Erik took another wheezing breath and leaned back against the lockers. “How did you know what to do so quickly?”

“You told me that you always have your inhaler in your bag by the field and I could see you were running out of energy as you were chasing the guy,” Louis said, shrugging and withholding the fact that he wouldn’t have been able to put two and two together that quickly if it weren’t for Harry’s talent. 

“Alright!” Coach McEwan bellowed as he walked in, throwing the door shut behind him. “We’re only down by one goal. And that was those bastards’ pure luck!” 

“Aye!” a bunch of Louis’ teammates screamed and it made Louis think they sounded like a bunch of pirates about to start a mutiny. 

“Newton, you are not going to let that ball out of your sight for any amount of time during the second half of this game, you got that?”

“Yessir,” Mike got out around a big gulp of water. His pale face and neck were tinted pink from exertion. 

“Murray,” the coach turned towards Jamie, who’s eyes seemed to snap from Louis to the coach in a split second. “I don’t know what happened there but you need to get your head in the game. You’re the captain, Christ’s sake! You can’t lead your team to win if you’re staring off towards God knows what.” 

“Yes, coach,” Jamie said in a wavering tone. “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.” 

“I sure hope it won’t, boy.” The coach took a breath and turned towards Louis. “Tomlinson, you’re in from now on. Make sure you’re properly warmed up after sitting for the first half. Play to your strengths, but don’t forget that you’re part of this team when you get to the pitch,” McEwan said in a gentler voice, his eyes conveying a gratitude that Louis associated with being quick on his feet to help out Erik. Louis nodded. 

“That goes for all of you! This is a bloody team sport and if you want to get those cocky grins off the Grantown bastards’ faces, you’re going to have to look out for each other and play to your strengths,” the coach addressed them at large. “Think ahead, play what you practiced and show those losers what you’re made of!” 

The team clapped, suggesting to Louis that this was where the speech usually ended. He thought for a moment and raised his hand. 

“Yes, Tomlinson?” 

“I know I’m still new to the team, but I watched the first half of this game with fresh eyes and it looked like our team was playing strategies over strategies. You know those players and they know you, but you kept changing plays to try and outsmart them...I think we should stick to the plays we know and play them well. That way it doesn’t matter if they know what we’re going to do, because we’re going to be faster and stronger than them,” Louis said confidently, yet quietly. 

“Play what we practiced!” Jamie repeated what the coach had said and threw his hand in the middle of the group, the rest of the team joining in. Jamie and Louis locked eyes over the sweaty huddle and nodded to each other. 

“Fort-rose, Fort-rose, fuck shit up! Show those Grantown nerds who wins the cup!” they chanted before they started filing out the room again. The coach patted Louis’ shoulder as he walked by him. 

“I can see why you were captain,” he whispered, and Louis smiled as he got running to warm his legs up properly. 

After his jog up and down the field, Louis returned to the bench to take off his hoodie and tighten the laces on his cleats. Harry was still there, smiling as Louis pulled a headband over his head and pulled his hair out of his face with it. 

“Those shorts are very nice, by the way,” Harry complimented and Louis just raised an eyebrow at him. “What? They are.” 

“Alright, keep it in your pants, Harold,” Louis laughed, walking up to Harry. 

“It’s not my fault you look ridiculously attractive right now,” Harry whispered, shrugging slightly and reaching out to brush a strand of hair off of Louis’ forehead with a lightning-fast motion. “Congrats on your future position as co-captain, by the way.” 

“I thought you weren’t Alice?” Louis laughed, letting the hand he’d been raising to take care of his hair fall back down. 

“But I know what the coach is thinking.” Harry tapped his temple. “He’s about to call you over and tell you to ‘get your head in the game.’” 

“Tomlinson!” the coach shouted just as Harry finished his sentence, making both of them giggle. 

“Coming!” Louis shouted back, taking one last look at Harry. He wanted to back away, but Harry caught his wrist with his cold fingers and pulled him back, closer than before. Suddenly Louis’ heart beat in his throat. Harry leaned down so his face was only centimetres from Louis’ and looked him in the eye. 

“Good luck,” he whispered in Louis’ ear and he pressed a featherlight kiss to Louis’ cheek as he pulled back. It was so barely-there that Louis couldn’t even feel whether his lips were soft like they looked or hard like logic told him they would be. 

“Tomlinson!” McEwan yelled again. 

“Go get ‘em!” Harry smiled and gently turned the frozen Louis towards the pitch. That got Louis going to his position. 

“Con-cen-tra-tion, concentration now begins,” Jamie mumbled repeatedly as he hopped from one foot to the other. Alright, Louis thought, touching a hand to his cheek. Concentration.

The beginning of the second half of the game went by in a flurry of plays and goal opportunities not utilized properly as the teams got more and more agitated. Louis had seen how the opposing team’s captain tried to find the weak spot in their defence time and time again, alternating between the left and the right, but avoiding the unknown player that was Louis. 

When he grabbed possession of the ball once again, Louis turned half away from him, resting his hands on his knees as if he needed a breather. And sure enough the much bigger guy came barrelling towards him, hoping to just run by. What he didn’t expect was Louis immediately sprinting alongside him and swiftly coaxing the ball out from under his feet. 

He ran in the opposite direction, leaving the Grantown giant in the dust and looking for who he could pass the ball to. He spotted Jamie, standing free on his right and passed him the ball, running through the opposing team’s confused players within seconds and awaiting Jamie’s pass back. They had practiced this move so many times that Louis could hear and feel the ball coming, he didn’t even have to look. And then when he had the ball and there was only one player between him and the equalizing goal, he faked right and broke away to the left, finally standing in front of the goal and kicking the ball to the upper right corner. The goalie jumped to the right, misinterpreting Louis’ shot and diving to the lower corner instead of the upper one, he just barely grazed the ball with his gloves, but there was no chance he could hold it anymore. And just like that, in under half a minute, Louis had equalized their scores. 

He had the breath knocked out of him as cheers filled the air surrounding the field and multiple of his teammates jumped around him, clapping him on the back and hugging him. He looked out towards the crowd and saw Charlie clapping along with a proud smile. 

As the game went on, the opposing players lost their arrogance and traded it for a more aggressive approach. It was clear they were frustrated by what Louis brought to the table. When they realised they couldn’t keep up with his speed they started tripping him up, resulting in a couple spectacular falls, to the point where two Grantown players were cautioned with yellow cards and threatened to be taken out of the game. Thankfully Louis wasn’t hurt, just a few scrapes here and there, probably a few good bruises, but their strategy worked because he was now running more cautiously, which was slowing him down. 

They were approaching the last few minutes of the game, neither team giving in and the trash-talk got worse and worse. As the ref had to issue a yellow card to a third Grantown player for tripping up and cursing at another teammate of Louis’, he looked around and realised that he’d been so focussed on getting the ball that he’d barely considered their overall tactic. Within the last ten minutes he’d gotten so into his head, so riled up by the insults thrown his way, that he hadn’t paid attention to anybody else. As they were walking back to their positions before the game continued, he saw everybody looking at Jamie. He turned too, realising that this was the time where usually, in his previous position in Manchester, he would give his players a last gesture to signify their play. But now Jamie was their captain, and Jamie was looking at Louis with wide eyes. 

“Alright?” he mouthed, and Louis nodded, out of breath but ready to take on anything these assholes were going to throw at him. Jamie just smiled and made a ‘come-hither’ gesture, locking eyes with each of his players before the sound of the whistle cut through the air. Louis half-heartedly tried for the ball again, when the offense came by him, but he let them through, staying near the ball but running around enough so the person covering him couldn’t get too close. 

They let the game continue well into their half of the pitch, until their opponents could taste victory on their tongues and then they switched to an offensive play lightning-fast, steamrolling the other team and stealing the ball, which was what Louis had been waiting for. He ran free and accepted the pass and then he was sprinting alongside the ball, the entire field open before him and the majority of the Grantown players in his back, struggling to gain on him. 

He lined up his shot perfectly and scored his second goal of the game with five seconds left on the clock. He heard the captain of the opposing team scream in anger and turned to run, frolic, back to his team, letting himself be drawn into the massive pile of his sweaty teammates as they celebrated their first win alongside him. 

“You really can’t come, huh?” Louis pouted up at Harry. He’d just come out of the shower, black jeans and the black Fortrose Academy pullover’s hood thrown over his wet hair. He stood about two feet away from Harry, even though he wanted nothing more than to hug him, but he knew to be cautious. 

“I can’t break a hundred year old treaty to celebrate you winning a football game,” Harry smiled. “As much as I’d like to.” 

“I don’t even want to go then,” Louis continued pouting, pulling the sleeves of the hoodie over his hands. 

“How about this? You go out with your teammates tonight and celebrate your win, but I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning and we can celebrate it again. Just the two of us,” Harry suggested. 

“Are you asking me out on a date?” Louis asked, just to make sure. 

“I suppose I am,” Harry confirmed. “I feel like I should warn you again not to be alone with me, but that hasn’t worked out well in the past so…” 

“Save your breath,” Louis giggled. “The answer is yes. Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.” Harry took one of Louis’ hands in his. “Make sure to wear proper footwear,” he said with a grin and he pressed his lips to the tips of Louis’ fingers, before dropping his hands and moving away. “Don’t go into the woods alone. And don’t get yourself in trouble.” 

“Trouble is my middle name though,” Louis laughed. 

“I know, that’s why I’m asking you to stay safe, love,” Harry said seriously and Louis’ heart fluttered at the endearment. 

By the time Louis and his truckload of teammates arrived at the beach, others had already set up a fire and somebody was playing music off of the biggest bluetooth speakers Louis had seen in his life. He immediately looked around the people gathered there for any of the local boys he knew and he spotted Seth, nervously trying to chat up a girl. Emphasis on trying as his awkward posture revealed his ineptitude without having to hear what he was actually saying. He sauntered over and dropped his arm around Seth’s shoulders. 

“Hey, lad! How’s it going?” he asked, and Seth looked at his arm first, then to him with wide eyes. 

“You know him?” the girl asked, her disinterested frown disappearing as she took another look at the boy standing next to Louis. 

“Of course I know him,” Louis chuckled over-enthusiastically. “I invited him. Seth’s a bloody legend.” 

“Thanks man,” Seth grinned. “Congrats on the winning goal!”

“Cheers! I’m gonna get myself a drink,” Louis nodded to the two of them and weaved himself into the mass of people standing around the pile of soft drinks and cans of beer. He hoped he had managed to turn the night around for Seth, maybe give him a little boost. 

Everywhere Louis walked, he had people fist-bumping him and clapping him on the shoulders and he easily lost himself in their enthusiasm. He smiled when he spotted Seth and the girl he’d been chatting to sitting on a log by the fire together.

He was just beginning to wonder why Liam hadn’t shown up yet, when two strong arms grabbed his shoulders and turned him around, before wrapping him in a vice-like hug. 

“Congrats on your win, mate!” Liam shouted in his ear. “You’re the bloody best!”

“I sure am,” Louis laughed, reciprocating the hug and taking in Liam’s outfit by the sparse light of the fire off to the side. “How are you not freezing to death, man?” He pointed at Liam’s toned arms, bare except for the short sleeves of his t-shirt. 

“I guess I’m too hot to be cold,” Liam joked. 

“Fuck off. You’re wearing fucking shorts in the middle of the night. It’s March,” Louis playfully hit him and felt the heat rising off of his skin. “You are fucking hot though.” 

“Thanks, Lou. You know I don’t swing that way though, right?” 

“Haha.” Louis rolled his eyes. “I meant your literal body temperature. Are you sure you don’t have a fever? Also I’m not interested in you. I’m seeing Harry tomorrow,” Louis told him, handing over his can as they walked away from the crowd. 

“You are?” Liam asked excitedly around a gulp of Louis’ beer. “But he isn’t here tonight?”

“He was at the game,” Louis defended. “He kissed me on the cheek before I went to play.” 

“Really?” Liam half-screamed. “So he’s totally into you. Did he call it a date?” 

“I pouted that I wanted him to come tonight,” Louis explained. “But then he said that he would pick me up tomorrow morning and we could celebrate, just the two of us. So I asked him if he was asking me out and he said ‘I suppose’ so I’m like ninety-nine point nine percent sure it’s a date.” Louis danced around the topic of why Harry couldn’t come and just hoped that Liam wouldn’t bring it up.

“I’m so excited for you, Lou!” Liam hugged Louis again, exuding warmth – and not just through his bubbly personality. “Now tell me about the game…”


	13. The Meadow

##  _“I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”_ _  
_ _— Jane Austen_

When Louis woke up the next morning, he wondered if there was something wrong with him. Maybe his brain had some sort of defect – not just because Harry couldn’t hear his thoughts – but because he wasn’t scared at all. He knew that Harry wanted his blood, yet he wasn’t afraid to go spend the day with him at an unknown location. He was excited – buzzing – as he jogged down the stairs to grab a bowl of Cocoa Puffs for breakfast. It was sunny out, which put him in an even better mood as he leaned against the yellow painted kitchen cabinet and unabashedly stared at the clock and out the window at the street in tandem. Harry hadn’t told him what time he would be coming to pick him up and it was already half past nine so Louis began to wonder when the morning ended and ‘midday’ began…

Not five minutes after that thought, Harry’s silver Mercedes pulled up in front of the house and Louis dropped the bowl into the sink, splashing a bit of water in, and ran to put his trainers on. He’d chosen to wear a comfy pair of blue jeans and a white long-sleeved henley. At the last minute he decided to go back and grab his soft rust-brown jumper from the couch in case they had to stay out of the sun. He still didn’t know if the sun actually hurt Harry or if it was just an inconvenience. 

Just as he took one last look in the mirror to fix his hair, he heard a polite knock at the door. He jumped over to get it. 

“Hello,” Harry greeted, smiling brightly. The smooth tone of his voice made butterflies flare up in Louis’ stomach. 

“Hi,” Louis said, wanting nothing more than to reach out and trace his fingertips over the dimples in Harry’s cheeks. 

“One of us is going to have to change,” Harry grinned, looking Louis up and down slowly. Louis swallowed, trying to suppress the thoughts that sort of lazy gaze conjured in his mind lest Harry had somehow broken his curse and could read him after all. 

“What?” 

“We’re wearing the same thing,” Harry explained, huffing out a quiet laugh. It took Louis a substantial amount of effort to look away from Harry’s gorgeous face, but when he managed it, he decided it was worth it. It was a close call, but the pleasure of looking at Harry’s face only outweighed the sight of the breathtaking form of his body by a very small margin. 

“Down to the vans,” Louis chuckled. “I think it’s kinda cute that we’re unintentionally matching on our first date.” 

“Mmh,” Harry hummed, taking a step back and raking his eyes over Louis one more time. “Let’s get going then.” 

Somehow it surprised Louis time and time again what a reckless driver Harry was. He supposed it was nice to get to places in such little time, but he did grab the side of his seat for stability when Harry accelerated to sixty-five miles per hour on the main road out of town. 

“Do you always drive like a lunatic or is it just when I’m in the car?” Louis asked conversationally. 

“I drive more carefully when you’re here,” Harry countered, turning to smirk at Louis. 

“Keep your eyes on the road please, I would prefer not to die in a car crash on my first date,” Louis complained. 

“I’ve never had an accident before, Louis, and I do not plan to break that streak on my first date either,” Harry said calmly. 

“Not that it would matter if you did,” Louis laughed nervously. “You could probably just get up and walk away if you twisted the car around that tree. I can’t.” 

“That is true,” Harry considered and slowed down to fifty-five miles per hour. 

“Thanks,” Louis said sarcastically. 

“Of all the things that could scare you about me…You chose my driving,” Harry sighed. 

“Oh it’s without a doubt the scariest thing about spending time with you,” Louis laughed. 

“So, is this really your first date?” Louis asked a while later, just as Harry was slowing down and parking at the end of the dirt road they had been following for a while, which by Harry’s terms of driving was about three minutes.

“Yes,” Harry smiled as he killed the engine. 

“You’ve never been on a date before? In all the years you’ve been on this earth?” Louis clarified.

“Not intentionally,” Harry chuckled. 

“What?” Louis climbed out of the car and Harry was already standing next to him when he looked up. His eyes were in a deep shadow as a cloud had covered the sun and not for the first time Louis wondered what the secret around vampires in the sun really was.

“Well, I know some people have had different intentions when meeting with me. But I was usually quick to point out to them that they were wrong to assume such things,” Harry mused, clearly remembering something but not elaborating. Louis thought he might be trying to save the person some embarrassment, not that Louis knew who they were anyway. “And you have to keep in mind that for the majority of my time here, it was frowned upon to have the...inclinations we have.” 

“Right,” Louis frowned. “It’s still not fun for many people. Wasn’t fun for me when I came out either.” 

“You’ve mentioned that your mother took it very well,” Harry remembered one of their endless conversations at the lunch table. He turned towards the forest to the left of the car and started walking. 

“Mum was great, but up until recently that was my only positive experience,” Louis elaborated. “My previous footie team didn’t think it was okay. They tried to bully me off but couldn’t since I was captain.”

“I’m sorry they treated you that way,” Harry frowned. 

“That’s the reason I don’t usually shower at school,” Louis explained. “I’ve recently had a weird run-in with Jamie as well, about you and me hanging out.” 

“Do tell,” Harry said with a smug smile. 

“I don’t think he’s homophobic,” Louis mused. “At least he said he isn’t. He just said that he doesn’t like that you look at me like you want to eat me.” Harry let out one of those sudden loud laughs, like the one he’d produced when Louis asked him if he could read his thoughts. “Yeah,” Louis grinned. “That was my reaction too.” 

“I almost feel sorry for him,” Harry said in a way that made Louis fairly certain that he really wasn’t. “He really thinks he has a chance with you.” 

“Huh?” Louis balked. 

“Have you never noticed the way he looks at you?” Harry wondered. “He’s going about it all wrong though. He thinks you only want to be guided and taken care of.” 

“He….” Louis thought about it for a second. “That explains a lot, actually. I’ve never really seen him that way.” For a second Jamie’s blue eyes and his grown-out brown buzz-cut flashed in Louis’ mind. He did have a handsome face and a nice smile, Louis supposed. “He never even had a chance.” 

“Why not?” Harry asked, still smiling smugly, and holding a branch out of Louis’ way as they were walking into the forest in a straight line without a path in sight. 

“Because nobody stood a chance the second I laid my eyes on you,” Louis whispered. “And none of them are half as witty or interesting.” 

“But none of them thirst after your blood,” Harry frowned. 

“If you tell me that James Murray is a better choice for me I will figure out how to maim you right here, right now, Harry Styles.” 

Harry deliberately bit his tongue, but it was clear that Louis had guessed exactly what he was thinking. They walked in silence for a while, even keeping quiet as they came across a fallen tree in their way. Harry jumped on top in a split second and reached out his hand to help Louis over it. The smooth coolness of the touch reassured Louis enough to say something.

“You’re the only one I want.” 

“I know,” Harry sighed. “I can’t help but wonder if you really want  _ me _ though.” 

“What do you mean?” Louis looked over at him with a confused frown, almost tripping over his feet on the uneven ground. 

“Everything about me lures you in, Louis,” Harry explained. “My looks, my voice, even my scent is designed to make you want me.” 

“Why don’t I want Niall then? Or Zayn?” Louis put up for discussion. “Or even better, I ask if the opposite is true for you: Do you only want me because of my scent?” 

“Of course not,” Harry said. “I love your scent but it’s what makes us being together in solitude the most dangerous.” 

“Why?” 

“I’ve told you, I want your blood more than I’ve ever wanted anybody else’s and your scent is like the bouquet of the most desireable wine in the world. The Italians have a word for it, they would call you ‘mia cantate’ – my singer. They describe it as your blood singing for me,” Harry explained. “It’s very rare that the human survives the encounter if their blood is as enticing to a vampire as yours is to me, Louis.” 

“I’m not sure I understand the singer thing...” Louis confessed. “Does it happen often if there’s a word for it?” 

“No,” Harry shook his head slightly. “I asked the others about it, my family. Niall said it has happened to him before, but not as intensely as me with you. I guess he’s not as masochistic as I am,” Harry finished with a self-deprecating smile.

“Is it really that bad? Does it hurt you?” Louis asked, suddenly concerned he was causing Harry harm without meaning to. 

“It’s like putting a sober alcoholic in a room with a glass of the finest brandy on the planet. The scent permeates the room and spreads until eventually the alcoholic gives in,” Harry tried to find an analogy. “Or maybe that’s too easy. Maybe it’s more like I’m a drug addict...And you’re my own personal brand of heroin.” 

Louis was speechless. 

“Are you afraid?” Harry asked. “I didn’t mean to scare you, I’m sorry.” 

“I just...didn’t know,” Louis mutters. “Is there a way in which I can make it easier for you?” 

“The words that come out of your mouth never cease to amaze me,” Harry said with a surprised laugh. “I keep wondering when I’ll finally say something so terrifying that you’ll just turn the other way and run. Not that I wouldn’t be able to catch you.” 

“You are very fast, aren’t you?” Louis took the chance to change the topic. “How do you currently feel about my human pace?” 

“I’d be delighted if we reached our destination by tomorrow,” Harry teased. 

“We have a destination?” Louis tried to find out more. 

“Did you think I was just taking you for a hike in the woods?”

“Maybe you thought my performance at the game yesterday lacked stamina. What do I know?” Louis laughed. 

“You were incredible,” Harry praised. “Everybody thought that, by the way, not just me.” 

“Thank you,” Louis smiled. “So, realistically...How much longer are we going to walk?” 

“Do you see that clearing up ahead?” Harry asked and Louis stopped to try and see what he was pointing to. 

“Not a chance,” Louis answered, squinting his eyes. 

“It might be too far for your human eyes still.” 

“My human eyes are perfectly fine, thank you very much.” 

When they did arrive at the clearing a while later, Louis was blown away. A slight breeze sent waves through the high grass and the first wildflowers were starting to poke their heads out of the ground. Little snowdrops and primroses danced around in clusters and the meadow’s almost perfectly round shape reminded Louis of a faerie ring. It was midday as Louis stepped out into the sun and walked to the middle of the clearing. 

“This is so beautiful,” he said, turning and expecting Harry to be right behind him. Harry was waiting in the shadows, a brilliant smile on his face as he watched Louis raise his arms and turn in place. “Am I going to see what happens when you come out into the sun now?” 

“If you want to,” Harry drawled, just loud enough so Louis could hear him. “Otherwise this date might turn awkward.” 

“Come on out, then,” Louis giggled. And Harry stepped out into the sunlight slowly, making Louis squint his eyes, afraid to blink and miss the big secret happening. What he didn’t expect was Harry blinding him. That moment in the car park all those days ago now felt more monumental than ever. Harry hadn’t only  _ seemed _ golden, he was. He was sparkling like a brightly polished diamond and it was awe-inducing. 

Harry walked over slowly, deliberately and stopped about an arm’s length away from Louis. Everywhere the sun kissed his skin, little glittery spots reflected the light back and when Louis raised his hand to touch, he was distracted by the light, the rainbows that reflected onto his own skin. 

“You are the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen,” Louis whispered. “May I?” he asked, looking up into Harry’s ochre eyes and Harry nodded, holding his breath as Louis’ fingers automatically reached to trace the side of Harry’s face. It was in hopes of getting him to smile and finally being able to poke his finger into one of those deep dimples. And it worked. 

“What are you doing?” Harry giggled. 

“Just following my heart’s deepest desire,” Louis defended, dropping his hand. He took off his jumper and placed it on the grass. “Come sit with me?” 

“Yes,” Harry nodded and they sat down facing each other. “Now you see why we can’t go to school on days like today.” 

“I do,” Louis nodded. “You could go to Pride though. Everybody would just obsess over where you got this perfect glitter.” 

“That’s something I hadn’t considered,” Harry grinned. “I’ve never been before. What is it like?” 

“I’ve only been once,” Louis admitted. “It was an indescribable feeling. You step into this world where...Where everyone just feels comfortable in their identity? Or, even if they’re hesitant, the euphoric atmosphere just carries them through the events of the day—It’s a glimpse into what it would be like if everybody could live freely. It’s one of the happiest, most positive places I’ve ever been...The sad thing is seeing people put away their flags and stuff on the way home though. I tried to keep them out as long as possible, but at a certain point it just didn’t feel safe anymore.” 

“I’ve seen so much change in the past hundred years,” Harry said, resting his elbow on his knee and leaning his head onto his hand. “If we keep relentlessly demanding change, it’ll only get better and better.” 

“I might not live to see that,” Louis sighed, wanting to ask how one would become a vampire, but knowing that the topic was too much to broach now. Harry stayed quiet too. Louis reached out his hand, silently asking for Harry’s. When Harry placed his hand in his, Louis didn’t quite know what to do with it at first. He held it in both of his for a moment, lightly turning it this way and that to watch the sparkles shift and change with the way the sunlight was hitting them. Then he lifted it up and placed it up to his, palm to palm. The difference in size wasn’t monumental, but noticeable. He placed it back in his other hand and started lightly drawing patterns on it. 

Harry moved suddenly, making Louis jump. When he looked up, Harry wasn’t sitting cross-legged anymore, but rather laying down on his back now. 

“Sorry,” Harry murmured. “I forget myself around you.” 

“What do you mean?” Louis continued tracing the veins on the inside of Harry’s arm until he reached his rolled up sleeve. 

“It’s been happening from the very beginning,” Harry started explaining. “I always said too much or behaved in a way that I normally would never around humans.” 

“Like when you saved my life?” 

“Kind of,” Harry admitted. “I told my family later that I did it because I would’ve ended up exposing us if your blood had been spilled…But at that moment all I could think was ‘Not him!’ So I ran.” 

“Did they believe you?” Louis wondered. 

“Zayn didn’t,” Harry laughed. “He knew I was falling for you even before I did. It’s very strange, hearing somebody think about the feelings you’re feeling and understanding yourself that way. And Alice didn’t believe me either. She has her own opinions about you, says that you’re going to be best friends. Carlisle has known me long enough to spot when I’m lying and so has Gemma.” 

“Gemma really doesn’t like me,” Louis stated. 

“It’s not that she doesn’t like you,” Harry clarified. “I hope that one day she can explain it to you herself. Her disdain towards you has nothing to do with you and everything to do with herself.” 

“What about Esme and Niall?” 

“Niall doesn’t really understand why I’m putting myself through this, but he’s fairly neutral, trying to distract Gemma enough so that she doesn’t throw constant fits. Esme had been worried that I might never find somebody I like the way I like you,” Harry smiled. “She would love you even if you had eight eyes and a few extra limbs. I’m sure the fact that you’re handsome will only delight her even more.” 

“You mean, you want to introduce me to them?” Louis was surprised. 

“If you’re not terrified of visiting a house filled to the brim with vampires,” Harry opened his eyes and lifted his head slightly. “Or is it too early? I have no idea how these things go.” 

“I don’t know either,” Louis laughed. “We’ll figure it out together.” 

“So if I invited you over tomorrow you would come?” 

“Okay,” Louis nodded. 

“Your heart rate is picking up,” Harry noted, like it was the most normal thing to say. “Are you nervous?”

“Yes,” Louis admitted. “What if they don’t like me?” 

“Here I was thinking you were finally showing a natural reaction to my kind, but you’re just scared they won’t like you,” Harry shook his head slightly and closed his eyes again. Louis stayed quiet, not knowing how to respond. 

“Can I try something?” Harry asked a while later. Louis was still holding his hand and tracing senseless patterns on it. 

“Okay,” Louis nodded, wondering what was about to come. Harry sat up very deliberately. 

“Stay still,” he murmured. He took Louis’ wrists in each of his hands and pressed down just hard enough to feel Louis’ pulse run underneath his thumbs. Then he leaned forward, tracing his cold nose along Louis’ shoulder and his collarbone before resting it in the crook of his neck. Louis thought again, that he should be scared, but he wasn’t at all. His heart was hammering away in his chest and he wished he could will it to slow down, to make it easier for Harry to do this, but it was out of his power. 

“Sorry,” Louis mumbled automatically. He took a breath and the naturally flowery scent of Harry’s hair was underlined by the scent of the woods and the meadow around them. 

“What for?” Harry asked against his skin.

“My heart is beating like crazy right now,” Louis whispered, trying not to ruin the moment. “It always does when you touch me.” 

“If my heart hadn’t stopped beating all those years ago, it would only beat for you, my love,” Harry confessed. “It’s a beautiful sound. Natural, just the way it should be.” 

“I’m not sure I understand what you mean by that.” Louis wanted to move to look at Harry, but he refrained, having promised to stay still. 

“Would you like to lie down?” Harry asked instead of answering the question. 

“Alright,” Louis started moving and the moment Harry’s face leaned back from him, he missed his touch already. He laid down on his back with Harry next to him. 

“I don’t know how well my human instincts regarding romance are preserved,” Harry whispered. “You have to tell me if what I’m doing is strange or uncomfortable for you.” 

“Up until now you’re doing great,” Louis smiled. “There are inevitably going to be strange things, but telling each other if we find something uncomfortable should be rule number one, I think.” 

“Of course,” Harry agreed. “Can I put my head on your chest?” 

“Yes,” Louis nodded. “Is this helping you or are you just torturing yourself?” 

“I feel like it helps,” Harry murmured, gently laying his head on Louis’ chest. “But then again I’ve been told that I’m a masochist simply for being here, so I’m not sure.” 

“Alright,” Louis snorted. When his heartbeat had finally slowed to a normal rhythm, Louis lifted his hand and started stroking Harry’s hair. “Is this okay?” 

“Mmh,” Harry hummed. “You have no idea how good this feels.” 

“I think this part of it I understand better than the rest,” Louis smiled. “This is the quintessentially human part.” 

“I’ve never felt more alive,” Harry admitted. 

When the shadows reached the middle of the meadow, where Harry and Louis had been lying and talking for God knows how long, Louis began to shiver and a thought suddenly crossed his mind. 

“Fuck,” he grumbled. “It’s gonna be dark soon.” 

“And?” Harry furrowed his brows, not knowing where Louis was going with this. 

“It’ll take forever to get back to the car if I can’t see the ground,” Louis whined. 

“Or,” Harry drew out the word longer than necessary. “I could show you how I usually go through the woods?” And that had Louis’ curiosity peaked once more. 

“How’s that?” he asked and before he could finish the question, Harry was already standing up. 

“Like this,” he grinned and then he was gone in a swirl of white shirt and blue jeans. Louis followed his form with his eyes as he ran a lap around the perimeter of the meadow so quickly that he looked more like an abstract concept and less like a person. It reminded Louis of the Flash or Asterix and Obelix. 

“That looks fun and all,” Louis giggled. “But how am I supposed to keep up?” And all of the sudden Harry was standing in front of him again, offering his hand to help Louis up. He turned around. 

“Hop up,” he smiled over his shoulder. 

“Are you serious?”

“Yes,” Harry insisted. “It’s going to be delightful, I promise!” 

“Okay,” Louis shrugged and jumped up onto Harry’s back. He tightened his legs around him as Harry hoisted him up with ease. His arms were wound tight around Harry’s neck and Louis felt like he had climbed up a marble statue. At least he couldn’t run into the danger of choking Harry. His face was next to Harry’s and Louis felt the wind around them picking up as Harry took the first few steps and started running into the forest. With each step Louis wondered how Harry never ran into any of the trees in their way or the branches swinging by rapidly. 

“You run like you drive,” Louis said into Harry’s ear, making him laugh. 

They were back by the car within minutes, when previously the hike had taken almost three hours. Harry stopped next to the car and it took Louis several seconds to realise that they had stopped and another few to get his limbs to cooperate and loosen their hold on Harry. When he finally managed to stand on the ground, his knees gave in and Harry had to catch him. 

“Are you alright?” Harry asked worriedly. 

“Yeah,” Louis nodded timidly. “I just have to get used to solid ground under my feet again. I feel like I’ve been on a ship for a while and I just stepped down onto the jetty. Stop laughing at me.” 


	14. Louis' Lullaby

##  _“Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy.  
Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other  
that we're related for better or for worse...  
and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum.” __  
__― Rick Riordan_

“So, Dad,” Louis started, looking up from his cereal bowl. “I’m sorta dating someone?”

“That sounds like a question, son,” Charlie chuckled with his eyebrows raised. 

“No, I am,” Louis said with more vigor this time. “Um, I’m supposed to meet the family today so I suppose you could meet them too?”

“Why would I meet her family?”

“Uh, no,” Louis shook his head. “I meant ‘them’ as the gender-neutral pronoun...Like him or her, but not specific?” Louis stopped babbling when Charlie put down his mug and looked up at him expectantly. “It’s not, uh… It’s not a girl, dad. I...I’m gay.” 

“Oh,” Charlie took a thoughtful bite of his toast. “Alright. Who is this lad then?” 

“Um, remember the guy who pushed me out of the way when I had my accident?” 

“The Styles kid? Which one was he again? Not the blonde, right? He doesn’t seem the type,” Charlie rambled on. Clearly this was as awkward for him as it was for Louis. 

“No, not Niall,” Louis shook his head slightly, not mentioning how insensitive that last remark was. He had other things to worry about. “It’s Harry, the youngest of the bunch. Curly brown hair, dimples.” 

“Ah, yes,” Charlie nodded as he stuffed the last bite of his breakfast into his mouth and washed it down with some tea. “When’s he coming then? I’m meeting John at Chanonry soon.” 

“He’ll be here any minute,” Louis smiled, relieved that Charlie’s Sunday fishing trip was higher on his list of priorities than his son’s queerness. He took his father’s plate and his own cereal bowl and got to the washing up right away to avoid more conversation. 

Louis saw Harry’s car pull up from the window of his room, just as he was smoothing down the front of his short-sleeved button-down, and quickly pulled on his nice jumper before running down the stairs, taking them two at a time. He heard a soft knock and crashed into Charlie on the way to the door. His father caught him by the arms and righted him. 

“You must really like this Harry,” he grumbled, gesturing at the collar of Louis’ dark blue shirt with the tone-in-tone bird print. “You wore a t-shirt to your cousin’s christening.” 

“Please, be nice,” Louis pleaded. 

Charlie opened the door to a politely smiling Harry on the other side. 

“Good morning, Mr Tomlinson.” He put his hand forward for Charlie to shake and they looked each other in the eye for a drawn out moment. 

Louis peeked over Charlie’s shoulder and saw that Harry had dressed up as well. His cream-coloured shirt’s soft collar peeked out from the top of his peacoat, no doubt the shirt was silk, and Louis wanted to run his fingers over it.

“Where are you two off to, then?” Charlie asked, rubbing his fingers together as he pulled his hand back. 

“We’re going to spend the day with my family, sir,” Louis heard Harry say as he was slipping into his trainers. 

“He better be back by ten, tomorrow’s a school day,” Charlie said in a strict tone. 

“Yes, of cou–” 

“Can you two stop talking about me as if I’m not here?” Louis snapped. “Harry goes to school too, he knows that we have class tomorrow.” He rolled his eyes as he shrugged on his jacket. “I’m ready, let’s go.” Louis patted his father’s shoulder as a goodbye and walked out the door. 

“Have a nice day fishing, sir!” Harry called over his shoulder as they were walking away. 

“Stop being a kiss-arse,” Louis laughed. 

“I’m just being polite,” Harry defended himself. 

“Sure,” Louis said sarcastically as he got in the car. 

“I’m nervous,” Louis admitted as they pulled into a long driveway a couple minutes out of town. 

“Why?” Harry asked. Louis watched the trees flying by behind Harry’s head. 

“Am I dressed appropriately? What do I even say to them? What if I make an absolute fool of myself?” Louis finished his sputtering of words just as Harry parked in front of a gorgeous house. “Should I have worn dress-shoes?” he asked with awe in his voice as his eyes wandered over the beautiful wooden planks that made up the outside of the house. There were large windows on either side of the entrance and a terrace leading around the right side of the house. 

“You should hear yourself,” Harry chuckled. “You look dashing, love, I promise. And they’re going to love you – simply because I do.” Louis turned to Harry abruptly. 

“You love me?”

“I’m falling deeper in love with you every minute we spend together and every second we’re apart,” Harry whispered. It wasn’t as if Louis was surprised, really. By the things they had talked about, the actions they had taken to be with each other, this was the natural conclusion to make. 

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I fall more and more in love with you the more I get to know of you,” Louis smiled. Staring into Harry’s honey coloured eyes, he had a hard time remembering why he’d been so nervous in the first place. “Let’s go.” 

Like the day before, Harry was already at Louis’ side when he got out of the car. He held out his hand and they interlaced their fingers, cold and colder, walking up to the door. Harry took his winter jacket when they walked in and put it up on a hanger. Louis carefully placed his shoes in the row lined up on a little shelf by the door. He wanted to kick himself for thinking about his shoe choice just moments before. There was a staircase which Louis assumed went up to the bedrooms on the second floor, but Harry led him around the corner to a large, open living room. 

“Wow,” Louis said, looking up to the high ceiling. The room went all the way up to the roof of the house and Louis could see the thick beams supporting it. Behind him, at half the height of the room, there was the hallway the stairs led to. It was separated from the living room by a beautifully carved antique railing. The entire wall underneath was just a giant bookshelf.  
There was a bay window so large it probably stretched across half of the back of the house. It had broad window sills lined with cushions and blankets. To the left of the breathtaking window was a grand piano and to the right of it there was a half-wall opening into the kitchen. 

In that kitchen, Louis saw Dr. Styles and a beautiful woman next to him. She was shorter than Gemma, but not as tiny as Alice and her caramel coloured hair fell over her shoulders in soft waves. Louis raised his hand in a small awkward wave and they started slowly making their way towards him. 

“Carlisle, Esme. This is Louis,” Harry introduced them with a proud smile. Carlisle reached his marble hand out for a polite shake and Esme followed suit. 

“Your house is the most beautiful building I’ve ever set foot in,” Louis blurted, blushing slightly. 

“Thank you,” Esme accepted the compliment much more gracefully than it had been given. 

“Esme restores old houses and furniture,” Harry explained, making a sweeping gesture around the room. Louis wished he knew which of the perfectly matched pieces were special. His eyes got stuck on the massive piano.

“Do you play?” Esme asked softly. Louis would have attributed Harry’s dashing smile to her if he didn’t know they weren’t actually blood related. 

“Not much,” Louis mumbled. “I taught myself some songs off YouTube, but I never had any lessons or anything. Do you?” 

“Only a little,” Esme admitted. “Harry’s our piano prodigy.” 

“Are you?” Louis turned to Harry with wide eyes. “Will you play something for me?” 

“Yes, whatever you want,” Harry agreed easily and turned to Esme, nodding. “But Esme wants to hear her favourite first.” 

Harry sat down on the piano bench and patted the space next to him. When Louis had scooted close to him, he pulled his shoulders back and started playing a complicated piece from memory, Esme humming along with a pleased smile. Louis had wondered at some point how it was possible that Carlisle and Esme played the parents of the others when they barely looked older than them, but he could see now how their dynamic definitely matched their roles. They were parents in every sense that counted.

“Did you write that?” Louis asked, as the music faded out and Harry answered with a small nod. “Is there anything you aren’t amazing at?” 

“Have you been showing off?” Carlisle asked with a chuckle. 

“Only the appropriate amount,” Harry grinned before turning back to the keys in front of him and going into a much softer, honey-sweet piece. Louis thought he recognised the melody from somewhere but couldn’t immediately place it. Then he remembered Harry laying on his chest in the meadow and humming it quietly. He could feel a deep crimson blush travel to his cheeks. 

“Thank you.” By the end of the piece Louis’ voice was coated in affection and his smile was watery. 

“You’re welcome,” Harry smiled back and reached out to fix a strand of hair hanging in Louis’ eyes. 

“Aww!” a melodic voice called out from the kitchen and Louis turned just in time to see Alice come in from the terrace through a glass door he hadn’t even noticed before. She was followed by Gemma, Niall and Zayn. Louis took a breath, preparing for the next round of introductions. By the time he’d gotten up, Alice was already standing in front of him and impatiently waiting to wrap her arms around him. 

“Uff,” Louis let out. If Carlisle and Esme had been timid, Alice was the exact opposite—Bold, Louis thought.

“Hmm,” Alice sniffed Louis unabashedly as she let go. “You _do_ smell very nice.” 

“Uh,” Louis was at a loss for words. “Thank you?” 

“Alice, where are your manners?” Esme asked. 

“It’s fine,” Alice made a casual gesture with her hands. “We’ll be the best of friends, Louis.” 

“So I’ve been told,” Louis laughed. He couldn’t help but find Alice’s forwardness endearing. 

“Alright, um, Niall, Gemma, Zayn,” Harry drawled with a confused frown on his face. “This is Louis.” 

Niall walked up to Louis. “Nice to meet ya,” he said with a toothy smile, shaking his hand. Zayn just nodded politely from the other side of the room, lifting his hand in a small wave. Gemma looked anywhere but at Louis. 

“It’s okay, Z,” Alice encouraged. “You won’t hurt him.” 

Louis looked over at Harry with a raised brow and Harry just sighed. 

“Can we all stop pretending that this is normal?” Gemma bit through the silence. 

“Gems,” Niall turned back to her with a pleading expression. 

“No,” she crossed her arms. “This is dangerous. If this ends badly, we’re all screwed.” 

“Ends badly…” Louis repeated. “As in, I end up being Harry’s dinner?” There was a beat of silence before Carlisle started laughing quietly. 

“Nobody’s eating anybody,” he said sternly. “Harry is with Louis now and that means that we treat Louis as one of our own.” Louis swallowed, looking down at his socks, embarrassed to have caused such an awkward situation for Harry’s family. 

“Alright,” Harry said in a faux-chipper tone, drawing out the vowels of the word. “How about I show you the rest of the house, Lou?” 

“What was that about with Zayn earlier?” Louis asked, once they had settled in Harry’s room and gone over why there was no bed. Harry couldn’t sleep—No big deal, Louis had told himself.

“Um,” Harry shifted next to Louis, slightly uncomfortable. They were sitting on a small loveseat, next to Harry’s big window looking out into the forest. “Zayn is the newest to our ‘vegetarian’ lifestyle. So I asked him to stay back a bit when I bring you here.” 

“Harry,” Louis frowned. “There’s so much tension in your family because of me.”

“They’ll get over it soon,” Harry smirked slightly. “Alice saw us all playing baseball together next week.” Louis let out a surprised laugh. 

“Well, if Alice says so.” He pointed towards Harry’s extensive collection of CDs and vinyls. “May I?” 

“Knock yourself out, baby,” Harry said and the phrase sounded foreign out of his mouth, his accent less posh and more American. His tone reminded Louis of a greaser from the fifties.

“Tell me about it, stud,” Louis snickered. 

“I have a mix of that on a vinyl somewhere,” Harry grinned and made his way to one of the boxes next to his record player in the blink of an eye. He pulled out a very eighties looking sleeve with a big heart on the front. The thick letters spelled out ‘Grease – The Dream Mix’ and Louis took the cardboard to read the back as Harry set everything up, lowering the needle on the record. 

The sounds of Olivia Newton John’s voice crooning ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’ filled the air around them and Harry took the sleeve out of Louis’ hands slowly. He pulled him close and Louis went without thinking, entranced by the unfamiliar sounds of the remix. The next time he looked up, he was already in a proper dancing position and swaying in time with the music without having realised what he was doing. His left hand was resting in Harry’s right and the other was placed on Harry’s biceps. He was led around in a small box, following Harry’s steps on instinct and letting him move his body by the hand firmly holding his right shoulder. Louis searched for Harry’s eyes and sighed when he found them, relaxing into the unfamiliar stance and movements. Harry started slowly spinning their little box, exaggerating the rise and fall of his steps. Louis had to giggle. 

“What?” Harry asked.

“If anybody had told me dancing was this easy, I might’ve learned sooner,” Louis confessed, still looking up at Harry. 

“Only the person leading has to really know what they’re doing,” Harry explained, lifting his arm and guiding Louis to spin through underneath, then immediately pulling him back as if he’d changed his mind and didn’t want Louis to spin away after all. Louis crashed into his chest, still snickering. By now the song had faded into a mix of the title track ‘Grease’ and their lazy dancing seemed very out of place. 

“Good, because I have no idea what I’m doing,” Louis admitted. 

“Does anybody ever?” Harry threw the question in the room as if he had just thought of it, yet already gotten bored by it and discarded it to be pondered upon some other time. 

“It feels like others do, but most of us are just pretending, aren’t we?” Louis answered anyway, leaving his thought in the corner with Harry’s. “Nobody else could ever have gotten me to dance. I’d never have given in if somebody asked...But you lead me to do it without me even noticing.” 

_“Our doubts are traitors,_ _  
__And make us lose the good we oft might win,_   
_By fearing to attempt,”_ Harry quoted in his silky deep voice. 

“Is that Shakespeare?” Louis wondered. 

“Measure for Measure,” Harry confirmed. 

“It would be silly to apply that just to this...dance,” Louis voiced the first thought that came to his mind, hesitating with the word ‘dance’ as now they were just swaying in place, hugging and the music had already faded away. 

“For being the comedic relief of the play, Lucio does have a point,” Harry murmured, slowly moving his hands down so they rested on the small of Louis’ back, making his skin tingle with warmth. A pleasurable shiver started where Harry’s hands were pressed against his back and made its way up his spine. 

“Isn’t that the strength of his writing?” Louis hummed as he rested his head on Harry’s shoulder. “He makes the jester say the most profound line in the play, yet somehow the moral sticks with you until the end.” 

“I’m glad you’ve shown me my doubts were holding us back, my love,” Harry whispered into Louis’ hair as he rested his chin on top of his head. 

_“I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviors to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by falling in love: and such a man is._..I,” Louis repeated the beginning of his Drama homework quietly, exchanging Claudio as the subject of ridicule for himself. This seemed like the only appropriate way to answer back with as much heart and meaning as Harry’s confession seemed to have. Harry hugged him tighter. 

At some point or another, Alice and Niall joined them in Harry’s room. Alice was brandishing a deck of cards, her deft fingers shuffling them in a way that Louis had only seen in heist movies taking place in a casino. 

“Do you remember what happened the last time we played cards, Alice?” Harry asked, making room for his siblings by taking Louis’ legs that had been resting in his lap and pulling him over so that Louis was now sitting in his lap. It happened so quickly that Louis barely had time to blush. He turned so that his back wasn’t to Niall, who was now sitting beside them and Alice plopped down on the floor. 

“I do, and I don’t wish to repeat it within the next decade,” Alice giggled melodically. Harry turned to look at Niall and laughed. 

“What?” Louis asked, watching the dimples in Harry’s cheeks and smiling along. 

“They’ve already set bets on a card game, you against me,” Harry explained. 

“If he really can’t read your mind, you’re definitely going to win,” Niall smiled triumphantly. 

“Does that mean you’re betting against me, future best friend?” Louis turned to Alice with a scandalized expression. 

“Sure does,” she laughed. “So, are you in?” Louis looked to Harry, who seemed happier and more relaxed than Louis had ever seen him. 

“Whoo!” Alice cheered, just as Louis was going to say yes. She jumped up and was out of the room in a split second, coming back just as quickly and carrying a small card table that looked to be at least five times Louis’ age. The image was so strange, for this petite girl to be easily placing down the heavy table with one hand as she was already reaching for the card deck she’d left on the floor with the other. 

“Just out of curiosity,” Louis started. “What are you playing for?” He went to untangle himself from Harry to sit down on the other side of the table, but Harry wouldn’t let him go. 

“Gemma’s refusing to drive us to school tomorrow so the loser has to drive,” Niall explained, which made Louis frown. 

“I’m sorry for causing such a disturbance,” he said, pressing a light kiss to Harry’s pouty cheek and walking over to sit on the stool that Alice had procured. 

“She’ll calm herself in a while,” Niall shrugged. “She just needs time to get used to this. Our kind doesn’t fare well with change.” Louis hoped he was right.

“Two games out of three,” Alice announced, and Louis was left wondering if she’s ever worked in a casino with the serious way in which she seemed to handle the situation. He ran his fingers over the black felt in the middle of the table and the smooth wood on the outside. 

“What are we playing?” Louis asked, raising a brow at Harry who smiled back competitively. 

“Your choice,” he acted benevolent. 

“Rummy,” Louis said quietly and Alice started dealing the cards. 

When Harry walked Louis up to his door at nine-thirty that evening, they stayed on the porch for a while, just looking at each other and smiling over how wonderful their day together had been. 

“Spending so much time with you this weekend has truly outshined any high I’ve ever had. I’m almost afraid of coming down,” Harry murmured. “I don’t want to leave.”

“Then don’t,” Louis said a little too quickly. “You seem so much more at ease.” 

“I am,” Harry smiled. “Maybe I’m too drunk on you now to worry.” 

“Have some more of me,” Louis giggled. 

“You should go in,” Harry told him, as he ran his nose along the side of his neck. “Charlie is waiting in the living room. Open the window when you get to your room and I’ll meet you there.” 

“Okay,” Louis hugged him for one more second, giddy on the promise to sneak him into his room. “Bye,” he said loud enough for Charlie to hear over the TV as he shut the door behind him. 

After an excruciatingly awkward conversation with his father, Louis bolted up to his room and opened the window. It was too dark to really see Harry, but a second after he stepped back from it, fingers were gripping onto the outside of the ledge and Harry quickly pulled himself in, landing quietly. 

He looked out of place, in Louis’ childhood bedroom. Too polished, too perfect to fit into this little world. 

“What now?” Louis asked, suddenly nervous. He hadn’t considered the implications of inviting Harry in at the end of the night when he’d done it. 

“Why don’t you go about your nightly routine while I wait?” Harry suggested. “I keep forgetting you need to do human things, I’m sure you’re hungry and thirsty after spending the day in a house full of vampires who don’t eat or drink.” 

“I didn’t think about it either,” Louis appeased. “But now that you mention it, I could go for a granola bar at least.” 

“Just go about your business as if I weren’t here,” Harry encouraged, sitting down on the side of Louis’ bed. 

“I’ll be right back,” Louis promised, grabbing his towel and throwing it into the bathroom on his way to the kitchen. He quickly gulped down a bowl of half-microwaved soup, too impatient to heat it properly, and went back upstairs to clean himself up and get ready for bed. 

When he got to the bathroom, he thought about the last time he’d had somebody waiting for him in his room while he was showering. He hadn’t heard from Liam in a couple days, nothing too worrying, but still a longer silence than the two of them usually endured. He shot him a text, asking if everything was alright and quickly got ready to get back to Harry. 

Louis felt slightly inadequate in his old trackie bottoms and band shirt as he walked back in. Harry was sitting on his bed in his shiny silk shirt, his jumper folded neatly over the back of Louis’ desk chair. 

“That soup couldn’t have been nearly warm enough to eat,” Harry chided. 

“How would you know? Were you spying on me?”

“Only a little bit,” Harry admitted. “The sound of the microwave was too loud to ignore.”

“Alright,” Louis squinted. “Not your fault you have super-hearing, right?” 

“Right,” Harry chuckled. “Why are you still standing in the door?” 

“I’m not sure,” Louis admitted with a small snort. He rubbed the towel over his head once more as he was walking into the room, before hanging it over the radiator. 

“Your hair looks like a swallow’s nest,” Harry grinned, beckoning Louis over with his pointer finger. “It suits you.” 

“Shove off,” Louis chuckled, running his hands through his hair as he sat down on the bed with his legs crossed. 

“I parked the car a little ways into the woods behind the house,” Harry said as he smoothed over the spikes standing up on Louis’ head. “So Charlie won’t see it when he leaves for work and the neighbours won’t get too suspicious.” 

“Brilliant,” Louis beamed. “I’m honestly not even upset about losing that last game of cards at the prospect of seeing Zayn and Alice jump off the back of Niall’s truck tomorrow morning.” 

“Alice will be whining about it ruining her clothes all day. Zayn will just use it as an excuse to break out the leather jacket,” Harry predicted. 

“I’m seriously worried for the productivity of anybody who’s in his classes tomorrow,” Louis giggled. 

“It’s a strange thing, jealousy,” Harry frowned. “I’m not used to tasting it’s bitterness at the mention of my brother.” Louis broke into a fit of laughter with a snort. 

“Zayn is just as breathtakingly good-looking as the rest of your family,” Louis sighed, when Harry didn’t join his amusement. “But you don’t see me spending lunch with him or inviting him to my bedroom in the middle of the night.” Harry’s frown softened at that. 

“I suppose that is true.” 

“It is,” Louis shrugged. “He’s perfect and beautiful, but he doesn’t do it for me. Neither does anybody else. Just you.” 

“Good,” Harry smiled. “I feel the same way.” 

“Glad that’s settled then,” Louis rolled his eyes and got up to turn off the light, only leaving the soft orange glow of his bedside lamp as he sat back down and leaned against his headboard. 

“You know, Niall was right when he said that our kind doesn’t fare well with change,” Harry recalled. “But you have changed me permanently, Louis. Your brightness and brilliance have ingrained themselves in my deepest self and I will not ever be the same.” 

“I’ve never felt this way before,” Louis admitted. “I’ve told you, but nobody has had me coiled so tightly around their finger as you. From the first time I saw you, until now...the more I get to know you, the more I can’t believe you feel the same way about me.”

“I’ve waited for a long time to feel this way,” Harry mused. “I read about it, heard others tell me, even heard their thoughts about one another...Nothing could have prepared me for the intensity of this.” 

“It seems unfair,” Louis frowned, leaning into Harry’s space. “That you had to wait so long and I get to have this so soon.” 

“It was worth the wait,” Harry reassured him. 

A couple days later, Louis climbed into the driver’s seat of his truck and turned the key to start the engine. He jumped from the loud roar it produced upon being brought to life and cursed. It was a sunny day, usually a happy occurrence in Louis’ book—But now it meant not seeing Harry all day, as his family took advantage of the fact that they couldn’t go out into public and they all went hunting in some nature reserve with an influx of red deer. Louis cursed himself for getting used to the silent comforts of Harry’s Mercedes and neglecting his precious truck. 

As the school day was already coming to an end, although Louis felt at times like it would never truly be over, he was on his way to his car. He was deep in thought, listening to music, after a hard practice. Jamie caught up to him a few steps away from the truck, hair still wet from his shower. 

“Hey, Lou,” he was breathing heavily by the time he stopped next to him. 

“What’s up?” Louis asked, removing one earbud to listen. He was admittedly disinterested and mentally already going over his shopping list, thinking about what he wanted to cook tonight. 

“Thank God, I caught you,” Jamie placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. “I rarely see you walking around without that Styles kid these days…And he gives me the creeps.” Louis raised his brows, removing the second earbud and patiently waiting for what was to come. “Anyway, I wanted to ask you something…” 

“Go on,” Louis encouraged, already tired of his stuttering and beating around the bush. 

“So, like, I know you said that you’re not really into the whole dance thing, but I was wondering if maybe...You’d like to come? With me? Like, as your date?” Jamie looked up at Louis hopefully as he scratched his collar bone. “I’ll buy your ticket and everything, pick you up for dinner before,” he rambled on until Louis cut him off.

“Listen, I’m very flattered,” Louis started, not knowing how to decline this offer whilst staying polite. “And I don’t know if you’re out to people so I want to say that I appreciate you trusting me with this.” He paused and took a calming breath before getting to the meat of it. “But, even if Harry gives you the creeps, he’s my boyfriend. If I were to go to the dance – which I definitely don’t plan on doing – I would go with him.” 

“So you two are official?” Jamie asked with a frown. 

“I suppose we are,” Louis confirmed. They had been fairly distanced at school to be fair, but it hadn’t even occurred to him that some people might still doubt their relationship status. 

“Alright, I can respect that,” Jamie said somberly. 

“Yeah, well...You should’ve respected it even without me having to confirm that we’re ‘official’, but alright,” Louis snapped, walking around him and to get into his car. “See ya,” he said as he jammed the key into the ignition and drove away with a roar. 

Louis was so agitated that he drove by the Co-op without stopping and took a left to take a long detour to the supermarket in Rosemarkie. Harry had been right, Jamie actually didn’t consider Louis a real person. How fucking primal of him to need another guy to claim Louis before backing off. He slammed the door of his truck a bit too hard when he got out in front of the Spar fifteen minutes later. 

Having done his shopping and still feeling like shit, he called up Liam to see if he’d like to hang out for a bit before Louis drove home, but he was redirected to his voicemail. Again. It had been almost a week since Louis had heard from him now. He decided to just take the slight detour and stop by his house to check in on him. Maybe that fever he’d played down at the campfire had turned into something serious? He pulled up in front of Liam’s house, but all the windows were dark, no sign of life. He considered what to do and was about to depart, when he saw Finn jogging up to the neighbouring house. 

“Hey Finn,” Louis called, rolling down the window manually and stopping next to him by the pavement. 

“Hi,” Finn said, looking slightly inconvenienced. 

“Do you know what’s going on with Liam? He hasn’t talked to me since last week,” Louis asked, not wanting to beat around the bush as Finn seemed like he was in a hurry. 

“Maybe Liam has got other things to worry about right now than your puny little worries,” Finn snarked and Louis was taken aback. 

“Um, alright?” Louis furrowed his brows. “Let him know I was here when you see him, please.” 

“He’ll know,” Finn grimaced and ran up to his door without saying goodbye. What a strange fucking day, Louis thought. He’d try calling again that evening.


	15. The Soul on the Line

##  _“The night belongs to beasts of prey, and always has.  
It's easy to forget that when you're indoors, protected by light and solid walls.”_ __  
― Cornelia Funke

When Harry returned on the weekend, eyes brighter than ever and smiling from ear to ear, Louis was so overwhelmed with joy he almost jumped into his arms. It took a monumental amount of self-control to keep one step of distance between them.

“How peculiar that even a minute away from you makes me miss you more than I would’ve thought it possible to miss any single person,” Harry murmured, his jaw clenched as he took the final step to close the distance between himself and Louis. He wrapped his arms around him and breathed in slowly. 

“Being away for so long must make my scent unbearable,” Louis whispered, happily holding on to the back of Harry’s suede jacket. 

“It’ll pass in a minute,” Harry assured him, sighing as he buried his nose in Louis’ hair. 

“How was your trip?” Louis asked into his shoulder. “Eat any bears?” 

“Bears are an endangered species in the UK, Louis,” Harry chuckled. “It was just a bunch of deer,” he sighed. “No fun.” 

“Why? Because they’re easier to catch?” 

“That, and they don’t taste particularly good,” Harry shrugged. 

“What would you prefer, then?” Louis asked conversationally. 

“I like big cats, mountain lions and lynx, anything like that,” Harry answered after a second. “It’s a rare treat though, because most of them are endangered. Anything that’s carnivorous tastes better than a deer, that’s for sure.” 

“Interesting,” Louis nodded along politely. 

“Is it?” Harry laughed, slowly disentangling himself from Louis. “C’mon, I want to show you something today.” 

They went to Harry’s house first, to drop off the car and say hi to his family, but then they walked into the forest together, towards what Louis could hear was a slight rush of water. 

“I better not tell the Chief Inspector that you took me into the forest,” Louis joked. “He reminded me not to go in again this morning. Apparently they found a body mauled by one of those bears outside of Avoch last night.” 

“He’s right to say that, but I don’t think those two things are connected,” Harry pointed out. “Carlisle went when they called the ambulance, he had a bad feeling about it. He’s pretty sure it was one of our kind.”

“Another vampire?” Louis asked, suddenly feeling shivers going down his arms. “It didn’t seem like a thing that a bear would do. At least not the one I saw.” 

“Those are still dangerous, Louis,” Harry said seriously. “Even if your encounter was harmless the first time...They may not be the most dangerous thing out there right now, but I’d rather you not encounter another one.” 

“Alright,” Louis sighed, knowing that there was nothing he could say to lighten the mood. They walked in silence for a while. Their shoulders brushed together as the overgrown trail they were following narrowed. When the backs of their hands brushed together, Louis trailed his fingers along the side of Harry’s thumb slightly before grabbing his hand and interlocking their fingers. 

Harry led them off the trail after another minute or so and shortly after that, they came to a halt in front of a drop in the river’s course. That was the burbling Louis had been hearing. The riverbanks were filled with glistening wet stones, small spurts of wildflowers poking their buds through the cracks in the rocky sides of the small waterfall. There were many places like this around the coast, but Louis was surprised that one was so close to the Styles’ house.

“This is another one of my favourite places,” Harry explained, his deep voice cutting through the splattering noise of the water with ease. He pointed to a tree behind Louis. “I like to climb up there until the noise is faint when I need to think.” 

Louis looked up the massive tree behind him and tried to find a branch that could help him get up there. 

“Do you trust me?” Harry asked, suddenly close to his ear. 

“Theoretically.” 

“Good,” Harry chuckled. “Let’s test that theory.” He walked in front of Louis and gestured for him to get onto his back, like he had back when they were at the meadow. This time Louis barely hesitated before jumping up. Harry made an effort to climb slower than he’d ran the last time but he was still faster than humanly possible, especially considering he had another person on his back. Louis’ grip around Harry’s throat and waist tightened the higher they went and he was about to question the height of the tree, thinking that the blood rushing in his ears was way louder than the water by now, when Harry slowed down in a particularly branchy part. 

“Do you really expect me to let go of you at this life-threatening height?” Louis refused to move. 

“I promise I’ll catch you if you fall,” Harry turned his head to grin at Louis. 

“What? In your granite arms? No thank you, I’d rather stay holding on myself.”

“How about you hold on to the tree?” 

“Ugh,” Louis exhaled deeply. “Fine. Just stay close, please.” 

And stay close he did. As Louis was climbing around, finding a spot to sit, a trustworthy branch of this millenia old tree, Harry was always right behind him. His presence at first was just barely there, just enough of a feeling to remind Louis that he was safe. Then, as Louis took his time, getting used to the height, Harry came closer and closer, to the point where he was physically pressed up against Louis’ back, his breath hitting the side of his face every couple seconds. Louis stopped, fearing his knees would go weak if this went on too long. He grabbed an over-head branch and stood up slowly turning around. He expected Harry to back away a little, but he did no such thing. 

“You’re very distracting,” Louis said, the muscles in his arms slightly shivering, but not from exertion. 

“So are you,” Harry whispered in Louis’ ear, tracing his jaw with his nose. “I’d like to try something, okay?” 

“Yes,” Louis nodded, willing to give his soul for a single kiss. 

“You have to stay still.” Harry’s lips were only millimetres from his and Louis could practically taste his sweet words on the tip of his tongue. 

And then Harry placed one of his hands right next to Louis’ head and took the other to cup his jaw and slowly lead their mouths together. As soft and plush as Harry’s raspberry coloured lips looked, they were firm and ungiving. Louis thought it was a perfect synergy, as if his softer lips were made to fit exactly where Harry’s wouldn’t give. He opened his lips with a sigh as he leaned into the thick trunk of the tree behind him. Harry followed without missing a beat, tracing his tongue along his teeth before meeting him in the middle. Louis was sure this was what ambrosia tasted like, sweet and flowery at the same time – like honey mixed with a splash of the most exquisite tea. His one arm that wasn’t holding onto the tree went to burrow itself in Harry’s open coat of its own volition, caressing his back and trying to pull him even closer. 

Just as Louis was afraid he might lose his balance, feeling all too drunk on Harry, he was left standing alone. He looked around and found Harry crouched on a branch a little ways up, frowning in distress. 

“Uh…” he started, trying to find a way to voice the question ‘why did you leave me?’ without sounding whiny. 

“Give me a minute,” Harry said, holding out a finger. Louis tightened his grip on the branch he was holding for balance and waited. Sure enough, after several deep breaths, Harry started making his way down the branches at a human speed. “That was certainly something,” he said, coming to a halt in front of Louis. 

“Oops?” 

“Remember the part where I said ‘stay still’?” Harry asked with an irresistible smirk. 

“Can’t recall,” Louis shrugged innocently. 

“You’re going to be the death of me.” 

“I thought you were already dead?” Louis questioned and it made Harry laugh out loud. What a beautiful sound. 

“Hey, Angie!” Louis bumped into Angelica as they were walking towards the cafeteria. 

“Someone’s chipper,” she remarked, linking her arm with his. 

“I don’t kiss and tell,” Louis whispered faux-conspiringly. “But we might’ve kissed, and I might have just told you.” 

“Aah!” Angelica whisper-screamed. “Amazing! Tell me more!” 

“We had climbed up in this tree,” Louis thought that was a normal enough thing to say, he didn’t have to mention how high up they were. “And he crowded me against the trunk and kissed me. It was magical.” 

“In a tree, huh?” Angelica snickered. “Who’d have thought...The city-slicker kissing his boyfriend out in nature.” 

“Shut up,” Louis giggled. “How’s it going with Erin?” 

“Boo,” Angelica frowned. “Don’t ruin the mood.” Her short curls fell into her face as she looked down with a frown.

“You still haven’t asked her?” Louis turned his body even further towards her, squeezing with her through the door a younger student held open for them.

“I don’t know how,” she sighed. “I want it to be perfect and romantic but I also want to be able to play it off as a joke if she says no.” 

“Here’s some free advice: that’s impossible,” Louis rolled his eyes. “Just go for it and see what happens. You’re torturing yourself.” 

“I know,” she whined, dragging her feet exaggeratedly. “I’m a masochist.” 

“Let’s hope she’s sadistic then. Perfect match,” Louis joked and Angelica hit him over the head with a tray as they got in the lunch line. 

“Why did your friend hit you with a tray?” Harry asked when Louis arrived at their lunch table. 

“I made a stupid joke,” Louis shrugged. “Said that I hoped Erin has sadistic tendencies, since Angelica’s into torturing herself by not asking her out.” 

“Ah,” Harry looked over to them thoughtfully. “That explains the thoughts of candle wax.” 

“Stop,” Louis laughed, lightly kicking Harry’s shin. “I don’t need to know my friend’s actual kinks.” Harry trapped his foot between his legs and smirked. 

“Kinks, huh?” He paused to raise his eyebrows playfully. “Have you got any of those?” Louis almost choked on his sandwich. 

“Not that I know of,” he managed to get out after coughing and taking a sip of his water. “Do you?” 

“I don’t think so,” Harry mused. “Although my kind tends to experiment as time goes on.” 

“Maybe we can explore that together,” Louis winked. He was taken aback by Harry’s suddenly stormy, unhappy expression. “What?”

“You should be able to do that,” he said through gritted teeth. “But I can’t give those experiences to you.”

“What are you talking about?” Louis blinked. 

“I can barely kiss you without losing control,” Harry explained. “You’re so fragile in my hands. Anything more than that, no matter how much we want it, would never be an option for us.”

“Alright,” Louis shrugged. “Sex isn’t everything.” Sure, he had hoped that someday they would get to that stage, but he’d lived seventeen years of his life without it. He wouldn’t be the first person to die a virgin.

“Most people would disagree,” Harry opposed. “In fact, half the people in this room are thinking about it right now.” 

“I’m not most people,” Louis shrugged again. “But if the problem is my state of...vulnerability, why can’t you change that? You’ve never told me how one becomes like you.” 

“I couldn’t.” Harry looked inconsolably sad at the thought. 

“Why not?” Louis asked, insecure now. “I thought you wanted this forever.” Why would that thought make Harry look sad?

“I do,” Harry leaned forward, taking Louis’ hand in his. “But I cannot sacrifice your soul for my own selfish indulgence.” 

“My soul?” Louis asked. “What are you on about?” 

“I’m a soulless monster, and I’ve been one for over a hundred years,” Harry explained. “You are full of the goodness and grace that only a pure soul could have. I can’t damn you to this godless forever.” 

“If a person as brilliant and kind as you are has no soul,” Louis said sincerely. “Then I don’t deserve to have one either. But if souls exist and human beings have them, I can’t imagine yours leaving you.” 

“You say that as if I haven’t killed,” Harry spat bitterly, avoiding his gaze. “As if my existence didn’t require me to drink innocent blood.” 

“If doing what you and your family are doing isn’t good enough for whomever decides these things, then the game is rigged and I don’t care to have a soul,” Louis squeezed Harry’s fingers until he looked up at him. “I’m in this forever. You can have my soul.” 

“No,” Harry said stubbornly. “I will not end your life.” 

Louis knew that this discussion wasn’t over, but he let it rest for now. His eyes wandered over the other people in the cafeteria, wondering what they might say if they knew he’d just offered Harry his life and soul. He landed on the Styles kids’ table and locked eyes with Alice. Her intense golden gaze captured him and, as was her habit, she winked. Louis grinned back, finding hope in the seer’s assuring nod. 

It was just a day later when Louis found an opportunity to ask Alice more about this soul-dilemma Harry was having. For some reason he felt like Alice had the same desire to talk to him as he had to talk to her. Harry had taken Louis to school as was now the usual, but he’d had to leave to help Carlisle out with something right after their classes ended so he’d enlisted Alice to take Louis home after practice. ‘A perfect opportunity to get working on that friendship’ – as she had put it. 

“Hey, Alice,” Louis greeted, getting in the passenger’s seat of Harry’s car. 

“Hi, Louis,” she grinned, clearly very excited to be spending time with her future best friend. 

“Thanks for picking me up. I hope I didn’t ruin your plans for the afternoon.” 

“Not at all,” Alice said. “I knew this was going to happen.” She tapped her temple exaggeratedly.

“Of course, “ Louis grinned, watching as she expertly pulled out of the car park and turned onto the main street. “So you probably know what I want to ask you about…” 

“I do,” Alice laughed. “And Harry doesn’t want me to tell you about it.” 

“Do we care what Harry wants though?” 

“Well,” Alice started. “I don’t particularly, but he might actually kill me for this.” 

“How do you kill a vampire?” Louis asked without thinking. Alice had something about her that made him want to voice his thoughts without preamble. It was kind of similar to how he felt around Liam.

“Why? Are you planning something?” Alice laughed. “You have to tear us limb from limb and set the pieces on fire,” she explained after a short pause. 

“So even if I were planning on it, I couldn’t do it,” Louis sighed faux-disappointed, deciding to keep this particular topic of conversation on the light-hearted side. He didn’t want to explore the intricacies of ripping somebody apart and burning them. “You know, Harry said something funny a while ago...He said that you had ‘your own opinions regarding me’ or something like that. Does that have anything to do with how to become one of your kind?” he asked instead, hoping to find the ally he needed in this matter.

Alice just smiled, parking the car in front of Charlie’s house. “Yes, I’d love to come in,” she said and a couple seconds later she had rounded the car and opened the passenger’s door for Louis to get out. They walked to the house together and Louis showed her around the ground floor, before his stomach grumbled and he led them to the kitchen.

“I would offer you lunch or tea but I don’t think I have anything on hand that you’d like,” Louis said, taking some of yesterday’s lunch from the fridge and reheating it in the microwave. Alice sat down at the tiny kitchen table. She looked weirdly comfortable in Charlie’s usual spot, like the old wooden table with the matching chairs from the fifties had the same sentimental value to her as to him. 

“That’s okay. My appetite isn’t too high after the weekend’s escapades anyway,” she winked. Louis pulled his plate of pasta from the microwave and sat down opposite her. 

“You are going to tell me, aren’t you?” Louis asked, piercing a couple fusilli on his fork and blowing on them before eating them. 

“Yes, but I also want you to understand why Harry wouldn’t,” Alice started. She pulled her foot up onto the chair and wound her arms around her leg as she continued to explain. “Harry and Carlisle were both raised quite religiously and through Harry’s gift he has incredible insight into Carlisle’s mind. Back when they were just the two of them, in the years before Carlisle turned Gemma and then Esme, he and Harry formed this incredible bond based on his ideas. Carlisle is driven by the thought of not wanting to be a monster, of redeeming himself in the eyes of God, and it really rubbed off on Harry.” 

“He kept saying that, in the beginning,” Louis recalled between bites. “He kept telling me that he was a monster. He still says it sometimes.”

“Yes,” Alice nodded. “He really believes it. Even during his rebellious phase, when he left our parents to live on his own for a while, he still only drank from humans who had in his opinion done unspeakable crimes. He likes to pull the ‘I have murdered people’ card, but the people he murdered were murderers in their own right and rapists. Some would argue good riddance.” 

“I knew there was more to him murdering people,” Louis swallowed. “It’s not a great thing to have done, but I knew he wouldn’t just kill anybody willy-nilly.” 

“In Harry’s mind this is still the most irredeemable sin he’s committed. And that’s on top of him being sure that his soul was lost the second he turned.” 

“That’s what he said to me. That he didn’t want to sacrifice my soul for himself or something…” Louis told her. “Which is bullshit, honestly. It’s not his benefit if I want it too.” 

“I know,” Alice nodded. “And that’s why I’m going to tell you what I think and why I disagree with him so strongly…” Alice took a deep breath and flicked her hair out of her face. “I saw you. As one of us. The day that Harry saved you from that tree, I saw that you would become part of our family forever. My visions are based on decisions and Harry thinks that this one is based on his and he can change the outcome by refusing to turn you, but it isn’t him who triggered it.”

“It’s me,” Louis said, putting his fork down to take a sip of water. “I made a decision that day. I decided I was going to find out his secret.” Alice nodded. 

“And that triggered a chain of events that will ultimately lead to you becoming one of us, no matter if Harry wants to prevent it,” Alice was leaning forward now, speaking insistently. “To become like us, you have to be bitten. We have venom in our fangs that helps pacify our prey, but when the bite is issued and the person bitten isn’t killed, the venom transforms their body into one of ours.” 

“That’s all?” Louis asked, suddenly seeing his chances at immortal life by Harry’s side skyrocketing. 

“It’s very difficult for the person who bites to let go,” Alice explained, putting a damper on Louis’ hopes. “And it’s very painful for the person turning. I haven’t witnessed it myself and I have no memory of how I was created, but the others have told me that. Depending on the person’s condition, it can take up to a week and during the whole time all you can think is that you wish you had died instead.” 

“Oh,” Louis swallowed again, dryly despite the water he’d just had. “That’s not great, but I’d be willing to do that. I’ve made my decision and if Harry will have me, he can have me forever.” 

“I know,” Alice said. “I saw that too. The reason I’m telling you this is because I have seen the versions of the future that your decisions have triggered, but I’ve also seen what will happen if Harry gets his way. And I much prefer your version, because I’m quite fond of my brother. Even if he’s being a rigid brat right now.” 

“What do you mean?” Louis furrowed his brow. 

“Harry won’t want to live in a world that doesn’t include you,” Alice whispered. 

“What?!” Louis half-screamed. “Is he completely insane? He can’t be serious.” 

“That’s what I said,” Alice agreed. “He won’t be happy that I told you this, but I think you should know. You’re both very stubborn, but this time I’m placing my bets on you, Lou.” 

Louis nodded, letting the information she had provided him with settle in his stomach with his lunch. The mere thought of Harry ending his life made him regret eating at all, bile rising up his throat. Louis was going to get his way in this matter at any cost. Alice leaned back with a smile, her eyes gleaming like she saw and counted on Louis’s determination. 

“Good morning, love,” Harry greeted as Louis got in the car the next day. He leaned over to peck Louis’ cheek. He wouldn’t admit it, but it made his heart flutter despite his grumpy expression. “Why so stormy today?” 

“You don’t want me as much as I want you,” Louis stated very matter-of-factly. 

“Why would you think that?” Harry sounded scandalized. 

“Because I want forever with you and you would rather I turn old and wizened like a raisin and we both die.” 

“Alice,” Harry grumbled. 

“Don’t bring her into this. She was right to tell me,” Louis defended. 

“I understand that you place no value on your soul...but I simply can’t bring myself to accept that your life...should end...because of me,” Harry had a deep crease between his brows, clearly struggling to form his feelings into words. 

“So you would rather I die of natural causes and then you follow me?” Louis asked sarcastically. It sounded insane to his ears—But not to Harry’s apparently.

“Yes,” Harry nodded. “I have already interfered with your life enough.” 

“By saving it?” Louis was agitated now. “Oh, come off it.” He crossed his arms and stared out the window. Harry’s reasoning was irrational and though Louis knew that he loved him, his first statement of the conversation still rang true to him. He felt like Harry didn’t want to be with him as much as Louis wanted it.

“I wish I knew exactly what Alice told you so I could explain myself better,” Harry said quietly after he’d stopped the car. They were early and Louis was determined not to let this ruin his day. He turned in his seat and looked Harry in the eyes. 

“She didn’t beat around the bush, to be fair,” Louis recalled. “She told me how turning works and what you did when you went off on your own and that she’s seen both mine and your versions of the future. And that we seemed infinitely happier in mine.” 

“Why do you want me to end your life?” Harry asked, sounding pained. 

“I don’t,” Louis laughed. To him being turned didn’t entail ending his life, it seemed more like the prospect of starting a new, infinitely happier one. “I just want to be equal to you, and be with you forever.” 

“Isn’t a lifetime of love enough? That’s more than most people experience,” Harry pleaded. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the headrest. 

“For now,” Louis shrugged, he had almost a lifetime to argue about this. “I’m content as we are.” He thought for a moment. “Our current situation entails us being in college and enduring the petty dramas of that, so I was thinking we should make it more clear that we’re together now. If you’re okay with that. There might be some...backlash. But Jamie asked me to the spring formal the other day and pointed out that we weren’t ‘official.’ I let him know that if I were to go, I would go with you.” 

“I’m gone for a few days and you’re showered in proposals,” Harry giggled, his mood immediately lifted with the topic change. 

“Well, not exactly, but yeah.” The memory of the uncomfortable conversation with Jamie haunting him.

“We can make sure people know you’re with me,” Harry grinned. “Let’s start right away.” 

“Okay, over-motivated much,” Louis laughed and they got out of the car. It was strange how quickly they had switched back to normal and Louis wondered if the situation should have been weighing on him more. He reminded himself that he had time to convince Harry of his side of the argument and happily let himself fall back into their love bubble.

They walked up to the school hand in hand, already pulling a few looks from their peers. It was thrilling, doing something like this. Louis loved showing off his happiness and hoped that people would be accepting. Before they reached the corner of where they had to part ways, Harry leaned in to whisper to him. 

“Do you want to really make sure everybody will know?” he asked in his deep, smooth voice. 

“No need to jump on the brakes now.” An excited shiver ran down Louis’ spine when they stopped and Harry crowded him against the wall of the East Wing. He leaned in, stopping just before his lips touched Louis’ and took a deep breath. 

“I love you,” he whispered and it felt like more than just a small confession, it felt like a promise—If not for forever, at least for a lifetime. He didn’t give Louis a chance to voice his response out loud. So he put his answer into the way he ran his hands through Harry’s curls, how he pulled on his bottom lip with his teeth and how he smoothed over the bite with soft lips immediately after. Perhaps the biggest answering confession was the way he bared his neck when they parted. Harry traced it with his pointer finger. 

“Now this must’ve given enough proof to my team captain,” Louis giggled, he felt warm all over. 

“I can already hear it spreading,” Harry chuckled. “Everyone will know by lunch.” 

“Good.” Louis grinned and placed one last chaste kiss on Harry’s lips. “Can’t wait to be ogled with you then.” 

“I need to tell you something,” Harry said that night when he’d climbed up to Louis’ room through the window and they were cuddled together on the bed, Louis’ head in Harry’s lap. 

“Shoot.” 

“I want you to know that I don’t mean to be overbearing, but I will probably be very overprotective in the coming weeks,” Harry murmured, running his fingers through Louis’ hair soothingly. “The reason I had to leave with Carlisle the other day was that somebody from our past has resurfaced and we think that they might be who killed that poor man in Avoch last week.” 

“You know the murderer?” 

“Yes, we think so,” Harry admitted. “We’re not the best of friends. Alice and I interfered with her business once a long time ago and I think she’s been looking to get back at me since. We’re a strong circle, but you’re vulnerable so I’ll be trying to make sure you’re safe even more than usual.” 

“Who is she?” Louis turned closer to Harry, wrapping an arm around his leg.

“Her name is Ann-Marie. She’s extremely dangerous, beyond just drinking people’s blood. She’s a tracker, she loves the hunt more than anything and she’s just as good at covering her tracks as she is at tracking others down,” Harry explained. 

“Why does she want to get back at you?”

“Did Alice tell you how she found us?” Louis shook his head no and turned to look up at Harry. Even from this angle, looking up into his nostrils, Harry was unfairly gorgeous. “Alice woke up disoriented with no recollection of her human life, she was outside an asylum in the States. This was in the twenties, just after we’d left Fortrose and moved to a small town in Washington. She had a vision of us and went on her way to find us immediately. She just turned up on our doorstep, already having adapted to our lifestyle and integrated herself into our family flawlessly. But she kept having these visions of a very distraught vampire for years. We moved around a lot then, partly because Alice and Gemma couldn’t seem to find peace anywhere. Gemma kind of found hers when she found Niall in Ireland.” 

“Alice was looking for Zayn, wasn’t she?” Louis guessed. 

“She was,” Harry confirmed. “We found him hiding in Paris. He was paranoid and completely removed from himself.” 

“He always seems so calm and...put together now,” Louis remarked, having a hard time imagining Zayn in distress.

“Seventy years is a long time to calm down and clean up your act,” Harry chuckled. 

“What does this have to do with that Ann-Marie?” 

“Like I said, she loves the hunt. Nobody has ever escaped her, except for Zayn. She thought she had killed him, but he still had life left in him when she dropped him,” Harry's voice turned bitter at the end. 

“Does that happen often? People turning accidentally?” Louis wondered. It seemed careless, ignorant not to notice that somebody was still alive. 

“No,” Harry sighed. “She had hunted down his family and feasted on them in a frenzy. When she got to Zayn she was already so high on their blood and so full that she couldn’t finish him.” 

“So Zayn was left in a pile of his family’s dead bodies and woke up as the only survivor after a week’s torture?” Louis asked with big eyes. “That’s awful, he must’ve been so scared.” 

“He was,” Harry nodded. “He remembered everything and young and foolish as he was, tried to hunt Ann-Marie down and avenge his family. Instead, she ‘took him under her wing’, manipulated him into using his talents for her. She used him to wage war, to train and rally an army of newborn vampires. But that’s his story to tell. He fled in the late thirties and didn’t rest until we found him.” 

“Why does she hate you if he fled on his own?” 

“Because I was the one who inflicted this change within him,” Harry smiled. “I met Zayn when we lived in America. He was off on a mission for her and ran into me somewhere outside of Calgary.” Harry’s deep voice soothed Louis to close his eyes again. He imagined Harry and Zayn in period costumes and smiled. “He was extremely distrustful, which isn’t unusual in our kind, so I didn’t think much of it. I thought he was just a vagabond, a nomad travelling the world – we encounter those from time to time – and this was just after I’d rejoined Carlisle, Esme and Gemma, so when he asked about my eyes, I told him about how we live with great conviction. Through his and my talents, we formed a bond – though he dismissed our ideology as delusional at the time, like most of our kind. I think my parting words to him were ‘you can find us if you change your mind.’”

“And he did,” Louis smiled tiredly. 

“Well, Alice found _him_ , really,” Harry chuckled. “She was too impatient to wait for him to find us and dragged me to Paris with her.” 

“So this Ann-Marie person wants to get back at you because she thinks you stole her...general? I had no idea that vampires had wars,” Louis tried to connect the beginning of the conversation with Zayn’s story. 

“It was a fad at the time,” Harry scowled. “Old, bored vampires were playing war and used newborns as pawns in their sick games like they were disposable. Thankfully it was stopped.” 

“How?” Louis asked through a suppressed yawn. 

“I think that’s enough old stories for tonight,” Harry giggled, pulling Louis up to the head of the bed with him and placing the duvet over him deftly. “And Carlisle and Zayn are much more knowledgeable about this than I am.” 

Louis was too tired to even protest, he just wrapped his arm around Harry’s torso and rested his head on a pillow in the crook of Harry’s marble arm. He wondered how he would ever sleep again without Harry’s silky voice humming lullabies for him.


	16. The Riddle Does Not Exist

##  _“For an answer which cannot be expressed the question too cannot be expressed.  
The riddle does not exist.” __  
___— Paul Watzlawick

When Harry said he was going to be over-protective, Louis didn’t think that meant having a bodyguard on him at all times. It was different when it was Harry, even nice to hang out with Alice, but the days when Harry had to go hunting and left him with Niall or Zayn were kind of awkward. Louis barely even knew if Harry was hunting game or Ann-Marie most of the time.

Zayn was still afraid to get too close to him so they mostly just sat several feet apart and read in silence. Louis did appreciate that time with him and he wanted desperately to ask Zayn to tell him of his life, but he didn’t know how, so he just enjoyed the calming energy Zayn produced and left him be. 

Niall was different. He was so active and constantly looking to get into trouble. Louis found that the only way to get him to sit still for a while was to put on any kind of sports on the telly. They did bond over their love of mischief, but it felt forced. It probably had a lot to do with the fact that Louis felt like Niall was his guard dog. Albeit a friendly, funny golden retriever, but a guard dog nonetheless. Even when they were kicking a ball around outside and Niall was mocking his ‘human inadequacies’, Louis caught him surveying the woods around the house every couple minutes and it unnerved him. Add to that, that anytime Niall was ‘on Louis duty’, Gemma just crossed her arms with a huff and disappeared in a swirl of fashionable spring colours. Louis well preferred to watch old movies or pick out new flower arrangements for the house with Alice. 

It weighed on his time with Harry too, feeling so caged in. He knew that Harry wanted nothing but the best for him, but Louis missed spending time with humans. He missed Liam, mostly, who still hadn’t answered any of his calls. And since he was constantly guarded by vampires who had signed a treaty, he couldn’t even go to check up on him. Charlie felt awkward asking Billy about Liam so often that he’d started to find ways to distract Louis from making him do it. The most frustrating thing about it all was that Louis just didn’t understand what had happened. Liam was his best mate, why the hell would he just stop talking to him altogether? 

“I can practically hear the wheels grinding in your head, love,” Harry said softly, looking up from the book he was reading on Louis’ bed. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” Louis murmured, focussing back on his homework. Suddenly Harry was standing right behind him, hands on his shoulders. 

“It isn’t nothing,” Harry insisted, turning Louis’ desk chair around and standing between his legs. “And it certainly isn’t genetics. Tell me what it is and I’ll listen and try to help you.” 

“You can’t, is the thing,” Louis shook his head, looking up at Harry. He reached out and hugged him around his middle. “I miss Liam. Amidst all this insanity, all I want is for my best mate to come over and play video games with me and he hasn’t talked to me in weeks. And I don’t even fucking know why.” 

“I’m sorry,” Harry said, like he was at fault for it. 

“You don’t have to apologize. It’s not like he’s stopped talking to me because of you,” Louis murmured against Harry’s stomach. Harry didn’t respond, he just continued to stroke Louis’ back and play with his hair until he felt comforted enough to get back to his Biology assignment. 

As much comfort and love as Louis felt around Harry, and as much as he continued pressuring Angelica to ask out Erin during the breaks in school, his only real time off from the whole ‘there’s a vampire who wants to murder you’-thing was during football practice. Even then someone was around to make sure he was safe, but it was easier to switch off and concentrate on running drills and practising different plays. In his new position as not-quite-co-captain-yet, he had to plan one training a week with Jamie and he was surprised to find that he didn’t mind that at all. Jamie was still coming on a bit too strong at times, but he’d opened up to him about his sexuality a little and Louis felt like he had someone who was on his side. Unlike the first time he outed himself in a team setting, any mean comment was immediately shut down and even though he had rejected Jamie quite harshly, the captain saying that anybody who had something negative to say about Louis’ sexuality would immediately be benched...It just felt amazing. 

Alice picked him up after his first solo training and Louis was still riding the wave of it having run quite well as he slid in the passenger’s seat of her yellow Porsche. 

“How’s it going big shot?” Alice asked as she started the car. 

“I kind of miss driving to be honest,” Louis rolled his eyes as he fastened his seatbelt. “I haven’t taken my truck out for a spin in weeks.” 

“Do you want to switch?” Alice offered and Louis was genuinely taken aback. 

“Would you really let me drive this ridiculously expensive part of your wardrobe?” Louis laughed. He really did think this car was just an extension of the way Alice dressed. 

“Yellow does suit you, it brings out the warmth in your skin tone,” Alice considered. “But I am very attached to this particular car. Harry gave it to me.” 

“Of course he did,” Louis grinned. “I’m honestly surprised he hasn’t tried to give  _ me _ a new car yet. You lot are throwing money around like it grows on the tree in your back garden.” 

“Don’t speak too soon,” Alice warned. “He’ll find an excuse to give you a car if he wants to.” 

“Stop,” Louis whined. “I would rather walk to school.” 

“So do you want to drive me around in your lame truck or would you rather do something fun, like reorganize my closet with me?” she asked, obviously being very serious about thinking that reorganizing her closet would be a fun thing to do. 

“I might be gay, but I’ve spent enough time in the closet, love,” Louis laughed. “How about you take me home and you can organize my closet while I make myself some lunch?” 

“But your closet is so boring,” Alice frowned, taking the turn to Louis’ street rather than the Styles’ house. “I demand I get to buy you at least ten new items once I’ve thrown out all the trash in there.” 

“Five,” Louis haggled. 

“Five plus a well-fitting suit,” Alice offered. 

“A suit is like,” Louis counted in his head. “...five pieces in and of itself.” 

“I know,” Alice grinned. “So we’re back to ten and I won.” 

“Alright,” Louis shrugged. “Anything that’s still intact gets donated though. And you can’t throw out my sleep shirts.” His old Green Day shirt with the holes in it would only be thrown out over his dead body. And if his dead body turned out to be anything like Alice’s, he would protect it forever. 

When they arrived at the house, Alice immediately disappeared up the stairs and Louis was so hungry, he didn’t have it in him to check if she was adhering to the rules. 

“If you touch the Green Day shirt I will behead you and light your body on fire,” he shouted after her and got to making steak with potatoes, enough for him and Charlie. 

The afternoon dragged along and when Alice left with the promise of Harry showing up soon enough, Louis was almost relieved. This was the first time in weeks that he really had to himself. He took a deep breath after hugging her goodbye and quietly closed the door behind her. After another sigh, rubbing his temples, Louis reached into his pocket and tried calling Liam for the nth time. Straight to voicemail. He called the landline and Billy picked it up after the first ring. 

“Hello?” he asked in his deep, raspy voice. 

“Yes, hi,” Louis was relieved to even talk to anybody near Liam. He’d been considering if he was a figment of his imagination after all. “Is Liam home? Can I talk to him?” 

“Who is this? Is it important?” Billy asked, suddenly seeming more alert than before. 

“It’s Louis. I’ve been trying to reach him for weeks,” he explained. “I really need to talk to him.” 

“Oh,” Billy grumbled something unintelligible. “He’s asleep right now. Maybe try again tomorrow.” 

“It’s five o’clock in the afternoon,” Louis was incredulous. “When am I supposed to call? I’ve pretty much tried every hour of the day by now. If he doesn’t want to be friends with me anymore, I’d appreciate it if he told me himself.” He knew he was bordering on disrespectful now, but he’d had enough. 

“I don’t control when he falls asleep, Louis,” Billy sighed. “Maybe think about why he would avoid you.” 

“What do you think I’ve been doing since he’s elected to ignore me?” Louis half-screamed into the phone. He ended the call and banged the back of his head on the door he was still standing by. He looked at the clock on the wall and furrowed his brows in determination. Alice would be far enough by now that she couldn’t reach him in time if he floored it to Rosemarkie. He didn’t know where Harry was, but he wasn’t here yet so this was probably the only time frame in the nearer future that allowed him to do this. He grabbed his keys and ran to the truck, starting the roaring motor and recklessly pulling out into the street. He wasn’t sure where the treaty took effect, but he went as fast as the old truck took him and only slowed down when he reached the first houses of the small town. He sighed then, mentally high-fiving himself for making it out of his guards’ reach. 

Next stop: The Payne’s house. The sun was just starting to set over the forest and the dark was rolling in over the sea. Louis thought the wild colours of the sky set a perfect scene for his dramatic entrance as he booked it up to the front door. He knocked loudly and impatiently waited for Billy’s wheels to roll up and open for him. 

“What are you doing here? I told you he was asleep,” Billy said instead of a greeting. 

“Hello to you too,” Louis smiled, overtly playing the part of the polite visitor. “Would you mind if I wait for him to wake up then?” He awkwardly moved around Billy’s wheelchair and went straight to Liam’s room, stomping his feet like a toddler all the way down the corridor. He breathed in, preparing the first sentence of the tirade he would present his ‘best mate’ with and threw open the door. 

What he didn’t expect was to find Liam actually asleep in his bed. He was baffled as he stepped into the room and looked around. Liam was shirtless, a thin quilt tangled around his limbs as he hugged a pillow to his chest. Louis wondered if he’d always been this beefy and jumped when he heard Billy whispering behind him. 

“I told you he was sleeping,” he said stubbornly. “Please don’t wake him up, he’s not slept properly in a week.” 

“Alright,” Louis whispered back. “I’m going to wait until he wakes up.” Billy just sighed and went back to the living room, leaving Louis alone. 

Liam’s room was a mess, and coming from Louis that meant a lot. Although Louis had been keeping it together quite well since Harry had started sleeping over. The neat Liam had clothes strewn all over his floor, the pillow he was hugging didn’t even have a pillowcase over it and his school notes were all over the desk. Louis closed the door quietly and for a lack of better things to do started picking up the clothes from Liam’s bedroom floor. He noticed lots of his shirts were ripped in odd places and wondered if he’d missed some sort of trend. He’d have to ask Alice later. If she was still going to talk to him after what he’d just pulled. 

When Louis had folded all the shirts and shorts he’d found in as neat a pile as he could and kicked all the socks and pants into a corner he went to Liam’s desk to see if he could do anything there, but he soon realised that the only thing he could really do was pick out the energy bar wrappers from between the pages of homework and throw them in the bin. Then he asked himself what in the heavens he was doing and went to the small bookshelf next to the door to pick out a book to read while Liam was asleep. Getting comfortable in the desk chair, he put his legs up on the frame of the bed and opened his book of choice.

He was halfway through Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, when Liam started stirring. Louis put his finger between the pages and watched him slowly open his eyes. 

“Hey, Lou,” Liam mumbled, rubbing his eyes. 

“Hi,” Louis answered, wondering where all of his anger from before had gone. 

“Wait, what the hell are you doing here?” Liam asked as he got to. He rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed. 

“I…,” Louis didn’t even know what to say. “You can’t just stop talking to me and expect me not to do anything about it.” 

“Hm,” Liam nodded. “What now?” He was cold now, clearly putting on a mask and expecting Louis to yell at him. 

“How about you tell me what the fuck is going on?” Louis suggested calmly. 

“Don’t you want to yell at me?” 

“I wanted to,” Louis admitted. “Definitely came in here preparing to rip you a new one. But I’ve been here for hours, Li. Billy said you hadn’t slept well in a while and asked me not to wake you up, so I didn’t. What the fuck is going on that you’re suddenly too busy for me?” 

“I wish I could just tell you and get it over with,” Liam sighed, looking around his room for the first time since he’d woken up. “Where are my shirts? Did you tidy up in here?” He looked to Louis with big eyes, his neck heating up red. 

“Don’t act so surprised,” Louis laughed, throwing him a shirt from the pile he’d created. “Your room was a mess and like I said, I’ve been here for hours. I figured I might as well do something nice for you.”

“Even though I’ve been avoiding you for weeks?” Liam asked while pulling the shirt on, this one was ripped at the seam and a bit too tight around the shoulders. Not for the first time, Louis wondered if Liam had always been this muscular. Then he noticed that Liam had cut his hair, too. His new cropped haircut made his features look much manlier. 

“You cut your hair,” Louis said instead of answering. 

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Liam shrugged. “It’s easier to take care of this way.” 

“You look older,” Louis said. “How did you gain so much muscle in such a short time? We saw each other two and a half weeks ago...Steroids are dangerous, Liam.” 

“Okay,” Liam laughed. “I’m not planning on taking steroids, but thank you.” 

“How?” Louis asked. “And why?” 

“Do you know that feeling when all you want to do in the world is tell somebody what you’re going through but you can’t?” Liam counter-questioned. 

“Hah,” Louis laughed humorlessly. He wondered if there was a higher power somewhere in this universe, and if he or she or they were laughing along at the irony of this with him. “Yes, I do.” 

“Then you know how I’ve been feeling since we last talked.” He got up and rummaged through a drawer in his desk, pulling out a couple cereal bars and a packet of Haribo. 

“What did I do that you can’t trust me anymore?” Louis asked, watching Liam shove an entire cereal bar in his mouth and swallowing it without really chewing it. He tried to remember how to perform the Heimlich maneuver in case Liam choked. 

“Nothing,” Liam sighed, opening the second cereal bar and shoving it in his mouth in the same manner. “It’s not that  _ I _ don’t trust you,” he said with his mouth full. 

“Who else is involved then?” Louis asked, grimacing at the sight of half-chewed oats and little pieces of chocolate in Liam’s mouth. 

“Sorry,” Liam said behind his hand and he chewed and swallowed. “I can’t tell you that either.” 

“Are you...Involved in some sort of Mafia scheme? A gang?” Louis tried guessing. 

“No,” Liam rolled his eyes. 

They stayed quiet for a while, just staring at each other and trying to convey something through their looks. Louis wasn’t even sure what he was trying to say other than that he was confused. Liam looked like he was trying to say something very specific that Louis didn’t understand. Their staring contest ended when Liam’s stomach grumbled and he had to look down to tear open his gummy bears. He offered them to Louis, who shrugged and took a handful. 

“The most frustrating thing is that you probably know already,” Liam sighed. He looked relieved to have said something. 

“I do?” 

“Yeah, because I—,” Liam seemed to be cut off by himself. 

“Because you?” Louis asked slowly, but Liam just shook his head. “What the hell? Why can’t you just tell me and get this over with?!” Louis was really frustrated now. He wanted his best friend back, not this cryptic guy who inhaled cereal bars and wore too small, ripped shirts. 

“I fucking wish I could!” Liam yelled, jumping up, his arms trembling with sudden anger. 

“So just do it! Who cares what they told you you can and can’t do?” Louis’ hands formed fists as he got up from the chair as well, clenching around the remaining gummy bears he had. The book in his lap fell to the floor. 

“If I could ignore it, I would’ve done it a long time ago!” Liam yelled, truly red in the face now. “I physically can’t say it Louis.” 

“What,” Louis was just confused now – to the point where he forgot to yell.

“Why don’t you go back to the museum and ask Shirley for advice?!” Liam’s entire body was vibrating with anger. 

“The mu…” Louis thought for a second and tried to piece everything together. 

“Obviously you chose to forget who told you the stories you wanted to know so badly in the first place,” Liam growled – actually, physically growled. “Why don’t you ask your—” he choked on the word and chose a different one, “—your fucking boyfriend what’s happening to me, huh?!” 

“My...” Louis hadn’t told Liam he was officially with Harry now, though he guessed it could be concluded. That wasn’t the point though. If he had pieced it together correctly...He needed to sit down. “Oh my God, Liam,” he whispered, eyes big. He looked around for the chair that had been behind him, but it had rolled away. He stepped to the end of the bed and sat down there. 

Liam was pacing around the room, slowly coming down from his thrumming anger. 

“Are you?” Louis stared. “So it’s all true? Not just the part about...y’know.” 

“Have you really got it now?” Liam stopped to look at him. “Because if you haven’t, you need to get out of this room. I don’t think I can calm down a second time.” 

“You’re a wolf,” Louis whispered, looking up from the half-molten gummy bears in his hand and into Liam’s eyes. “Aren’t you?” 

“Yes,” Liam sighed, sinking down on his knees in front of Louis with a quiet sob. Louis reached out and pulled him close. Liam wrapped his arms around his middle and Louis relished the warmth of his hug. He wondered if it was just the fact that he’d hugged so many vampires in the recent past or if Liam still had that fever.

“You’re still really hot,” Louis mumbled. 

“Thanks, I’ve been working out,” Liam laughed and Louis flicked him in the back of his head. “It comes with the transition. My body temperature is naturally higher now.” 

“Oh,” Louis nodded. “Cool. What else changed?” 

“I can be a giant wolf now. And I can’t disobey direct orders from the alpha, which is why I couldn’t tell you what was going on,” Liam laughed. “I have a pack that won’t get out of my head, too. They’ll be massively relieved that I won’t be sulking anymore.” 

“What do you mean they’re in your head?” Louis wondered. It sounded a bit like Harry’s mind reading talent. 

“The pack can hear each other’s thoughts when we’re wolves,” Liam explained. “It’s pretty useful in combat and just to communicate in wolf-form in general, but there’s no way to turn it off. So we know everything each of us thinks. And I’ve been thinking about how much I missed hanging out with you.” 

“Me too,” Louis nodded. “I missed you so much, Lima.” They stood up and hugged properly. When they parted Liam took a huge breath. 

“Dude, you fucking stink,” he laughed. 

“What the fuck?” Louis laughed, he smelled his pits and his shirt. They smelled like detergent and a little bit like Alice’s natural strawberry and hay scent. 

“Have you been hanging out with the boyfriend?” Liam wondered with a slightly disgusted tilt to his lips. 

“No, his sister.” Louis clarified, ignoring the hostility against Harry for now. 

“Ah,” Liam nodded knowingly. “They’re our natural enemy, it makes sense that they wouldn’t smell great to us.” Louis thought that added up, but he wondered how the wonderful scent each of the Styles family’s members had, could smell bad to anyone. “It’s unbearably sweet,” Liam answered the question for him before he could ask. “It’s like when somebody bathes in perfume and you’re stuck in the lift with them for an extended period of time.” 

“Okay,” Louis giggled. “I’ll make sure to tell them that.” 

Liam looked past Louis to his alarm clock and grumbled, a sound not unlike his father. “I’ve got to go in a minute, Lou. But promise to come back soon, yeah?” 

“Yes,” Louis promised, ignoring the fact that none of his bodyguards would let him leave. He’d figure it out. “Take care of yourself, Liam. Try to not get eaten by a bear.” Liam laughed a full belly-laugh, folding himself in half and Louis watched, bemused. 

“Those bear sightings?” Liam asked if that was what Louis had been referencing and continued when he received an answering nod. “There are no bears around here. That was us.” 

“You?” Louis stalked. “You’re that big? I literally saw one of you in the woods a while ago and I would’ve never guessed it was a wolf.” 

“That was Finn, I think,” Liam nodded, opening the door to indicate Louis really had to leave now. 

“Who, by the way, was really fucking rude to me the last time I came here,” Louis told Liam as he walked to the bin to throw away the sticky gummy bears he still had in his hand. 

“Yeah,” Liam frowned. “He was tired of me whining I guess.” Louis licked his fingers clean and put the book he’d borrowed back on the shelf on his way to the door. 

“No need to take it out on me,” Louis chuckled. “I literally just asked him where you were.” 

“I already told him as much,” Liam grinned, bumping into Louis’ shoulder. They hugged goodbye for a long time and before Louis left he grabbed Liam’s face and pressed a smacking kiss to his cheek. 

“No more secrets,” Louis said. 

“No more secrets,” Liam promised. 

“How could you do this to me?” was the first thing Harry said when Louis opened the door to his room. 

“Do you have any idea how fucking caged in I feel?” Louis threw back. 

“I told you this was for your own safety,” Harry said forcefully. “You could have died on your way to Rosemarkie. Or in Rosemarkie. Or on the way back. Every step of the way you were alone.” His tone was pressing, like he thought Louis didn’t know.

“But I didn’t,” Louis said quietly. “I made up with my best friend because this is fucking isolating, Harry. Are you aware that the only other friends I see now are at school? While I’m human, I’d love to spend time with some others of my kind.” 

“What am I supposed to do?” Harry started pacing the room. He looked about two seconds away from punching a hole in the wall. 

“Darling,” Louis walked up to him and stopped his pacing, “I know you only want to protect me, but I promise you I was safe in Rosemarkie.” 

“How would you know? Ann-Marie hasn’t signed a treaty,” Harry huffed. 

“But they have an entire pack of wolves protecting them,” Louis noted. “And I’m definitely not exempt from that.” 

“So he told you?” 

“What? That he’s a wolf?” Louis asked, taking Harry’s hands to comfort him, after hugging Liam they felt even colder than usual. “No, he couldn’t. I had to figure it out myself.” 

“And you did,” Harry reached up to touch the side of Louis’ face. “Of course you did.” 

“Well, it took me a damn long time,” Louis shook his head. “My point stands though. Liam can protect me.” 

“No,” Harry huffed. “He and his pack are a bunch of over-excited, inexperienced puppies, love. There's more possibility of them putting you in danger than keeping you safe.” 

“He told me to tell you that you stink,” Louis countered and the tension dissolved into quiet giggles. 

Louis knew that Harry would try to stop him from going back to Rosemarkie, but he would be damned if he let his boyfriend stop him from hanging out with his best mate. And he was once again too curious for his own good. He needed to find out more about the wolves and their fascinating nature. 

But for now, he would let the evening commence in peace and hope for a passionate goodnight kiss. After all, it was the little things in life that kept people going in times of crisis and he needed to come out the other end of this with his and Harry’s love intact. 


	17. Watchful Eyes

##  _“Come away, O human child!_ _  
_ _To the waters and the wild_ _  
_ _With a faery, hand in hand,_ _  
_ _For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.”_ __  
― William Butler Yeats

Louis was running, he was taking his fifth and final lap around the field and he was breathless. Spring had started, little violets blooming in the front yard, white and purple primroses littering the school grounds – and yet, it was so cold his nose felt like it might fall off with each breath and his windpipe hurt with the cold air he continuously forced into it. One more time, down the length of the field and cardio day was over...He pulled in front of Mike, increasing his tempo steadily and breaking into a sprint on the last metres. He jumped to high five Coach McEwan as he crossed the finish line, not-so-closely followed by Jamie. 

“Walk it off, Tomlinson,” the coach shouted, as Louis wanted to stop. Right, walk a round to calm your heartbeat. Alright. Louis started walking backwards, throwing a thumbs up in the general direction of where the coach was timing them. He turned back and focussed on taking slow, deep breaths.

His eyes flitted over his surroundings, not looking for anything in particular, just taking in the rich green of the highland grass and the conifers in the forest. The other trees were still bare, just starting to open their little buds on sunny days. It was interesting how the ground gained colour before it could travel up to the bushes and branches. Just as Louis wondered how long it would take for the trees to start blooming, he noticed a small spot of colour in the forest. It was light yellow, almost white and when Louis slowed down to better see it, it moved. He stopped, eyes staring at the spot in the distance, but nothing. He turned slowly to where Niall was supposed to watch his training but he was gone. 

“Alright, mate?” Jamie bumped into him. “You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.” 

“What?” Louis asked, walking along when Jamie clapped him on the shoulder and pulled him along. “Not a ghost, just thought I’d seen something in the forest over there, but it’s gone now.” 

“Probably nothing,” Jamie shrugged. “I’d be seeing things too, if I’d ran over a mile in under six minutes.” 

“Not my fault you’re all out of shape,” Louis joked, his eyes flitting back to the spot in the woods, but still nothing. It wasn’t a ghost, that was sure...Maybe a vampire, with blonde hair. Niall was wearing a red jumper, so unless he’d taken it off, it wasn’t him. Esme, who was the only other blonde Styles, wasn’t as tall. And she had no reason to lurk around in the woods while Louis was at practice. He didn’t even know if Ann-Marie was blonde. Fuck. How could he not know that? 

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Jamie asked, pulling him aside when they’d finished the round without Louis noticing. He handed Louis his water bottle. “You’re pale as a sheet.” 

“I’m fine,” Louis put the water bottle back on the bench and rubbed his cold nose to get it to warm back up. 

He looked around for Niall again, panicking now, and saw him standing at the gate to the field, gesturing to come right away. He still had his crimson red jumper on. Louis nodded and clapped the last member of the team on the shoulder as they ended their walking round, still breathing heavily. He went through the motions of stretching quickly and ran off to get his kit when the coach called the training over. His mind was racing a mile a minute. Why was she watching him train? Someone yelled after him, asking how he could still run. Louis was tempted to shout back that they would too, if they feared for their life. He knew Niall was strong, and probably a good fighter, but there was a reason this woman was centuries old...He hadn’t properly seen her face but even her stance exuded power and confidence. 

Niall was waiting for him at the door of the practice room when he came barrelling out, just before the others reached it. He threw an arm around his shoulder and briskly walked them to his Jeep. If even Niall was nervous and didn’t take the time to make a cheesy joke, Louis was in real trouble. He’d felt bad for thinking that Niall alone probably couldn’t protect him, but with the way Niall looked around after ushering Louis into the car and appeared on the other side of the car in less than a second...Louis had a feeling he wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

“You saw her too, didn’t you?” Niall asked, starting the motor. 

“I think so,” Louis said, his voice sounding all too weak in his own ears. “She’s blonde, yeah?”

“Yes,” Niall nodded, brows furrowed as he sped down the way to his family’s house. “You need to know what she looks like. How has nobody told you what she looks like?” Niall’s voice edged on panic at the end of the question and Louis knew where he was coming from. He’d thought the same thing.

“I don’t know, Niall,” Louis clenched and unclenched his fingers. “I don’t fucking know.” 

“Alright,” Niall took a deep breath. “No need to freak out yet. We’ll ask Alice to draw a sketch of her so you know.” 

“Okay,” Louis nodded along, choking on a quiet sob. “When – when’s Harry coming back?” 

“We’re gonna call him in a minute,” Niall assured, reaching out a hand to smooth over Louis’ sweat-soaked shoulder. “They’re hunting down in the south, Carlisle said they have a fox problem there or something.” 

“He’s seven hundred miles away?!” Louis asked, terrified. “Fuck.” 

“Harry’s fast,” Niall reminded him. “If he runs alone, which he will when he hears this, he’ll be home in just about five hours.” He stopped the car and Louis looked around, realising they were in a huge garage, a part of the house he hadn’t been in before. The garage door sliding closed made him twitchy, expecting a blonde assassin to roll underneath it until the last second.

“Call him now, please,” Louis whispered, banging his head against the headrest when the door was finally closed. Not that a garage door could stop her. He undid his seatbelt and hugged his knees to his chest, no doubt ruining the seat of Niall’s precious Jeep with his muddied cleats, but Niall didn’t say anything. He pulled out his mobile and quickly explained the situation to Harry as Louis was rocking back and forth in his curled up position. He grabbed the phone when Niall handed it to him and pressed it to his ear. 

“Darling?” Harry asked and Louis started crying at the tone of his voice, filled with worry and unspoken apologies. 

“I’m sorry,” Louis croaked through the frog in his throat. 

“No, love, I’m sorry,” Harry insisted.

“I’m – I’m sorry I didn’t take it seriously,” Louis admitted. “I saw her, Harry. I didn’t grasp she was real until I saw her and I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay, Lou,” Harry assured. “You’re so strong in the face of all of this, it’s no wonder you don’t believe things you haven’t seen. I’ll be there as soon as I can, okay? I’m already halfway between Reading and Oxford.” 

“Okay,” Louis mumbled, drying the tears on his cheeks clumsily with his hands until Niall handed him a tissue. “I love you.” 

“I love you,” Harry said back and then the line went dead. 

Ten minutes later they were all gathered around the kitchen table. Alice had already started drawing a portrait of Ann-Marie when they’d walked in. Her hand motions so quick they looked like a timelapse from where Louis had sat down opposite her. Zayn had obviously decided to disregard Harry’s safety protocol in the face of a bigger danger and was holding Louis’ hand under the table to calm him. Carlisle was sitting at the head of the table, bent over an old map with Niall. Esme, Gemma and Harry were on their way back. There was nothing Louis could do if he was so scared, he had trouble breathing so he focussed on the reassuring pressure of Zayn’s hand in his and breathing in rhythm with the slow circles he was drawing on the back of his hand.

“What’s up with the map?” Louis asked, once his breathing had calmed to a normal speed. He gave Zayn a grateful nod and pulled him up to walk over without letting go of his hand. 

“Niall said she ran off in the direction of Rosemarkie again,” Carlisle explained. “She seems to have figured out that we can’t follow her there, so we’re re-familiarizing ourselves with where the line between the territories goes, since none of you were here when the treaty was first signed.” 

Louis was just admiring the precise lines of the obviously hand-drawn map, when Alice handed him a piece of paper with a photorealistic portrait of a woman on it. She was beautiful, like all the vampires Louis had seen, yet the pointed angles of her nose and jaw made her look a little bird-like. She had thin lips and rounded eyebrows that appeared to make her even younger than she had probably been when she was turned. Louis had a hard time believing this woman was supposed to be multiple centuries old, yet he knew that she was. And she was threatening his life, so he did his best memorizing her face. 

Louis’ phone rang out of nowhere and he bolted over to his training bag to pull it out, thinking that it may be Harry and hoping everything was alright with him. 

“It’s Liam,” he announced with a small sigh of relief, before walking out into the living room to take the call. He knew everyone could hear him and Liam talking, but he preferred the illusion of privacy. 

“Hi,” he said, answering the call. Even now his voice still rang with the salt of his tears. 

“Are you alright?” Liam asked, something rustling on his end of the line. “I just got off my shift, I thought you might want to come over.” 

“What shift?” Louis asked. “I didn’t know you had a job now.”

“No, my shift running patrol around the perimeters of town,” Liam explained. “We have this pesky little bloodsucker who keeps running onto our land so Sam has us on guard all day.” 

“Shit,” Louis cursed. “You need to be careful, Liam. Please tell me you’re being careful.” 

“Sure,” Liam exhaled a small laugh. “She’s just one, there’s five of us and Seth is turning soon.”

“No,” Louis shook his head, feeling the distress coming back full force now that Zayn was in the other room. “You don’t understand. She’s dangerous, please believe me.” 

“Wait,” Liam said and it sounded like he threw himself onto his bed. “What do you know?” 

“I—,” Louis started walking back into the kitchen. “I’m gonna put you on speaker, okay? We’re just trying to figure things out ourselves.” 

“Hello, Liam,” Carlisle greeted, voice still calm and friendly as ever. “How can we help you?” 

“What do you know of the leech running around on our territory?” Liam’s voice had cooled considerably, he was obviously suspecting the Styles family had something to do with this. 

“Her name is Ann-Marie,” Zayn started, surprising everyone – except Alice – by speaking. “She’s a tracker, a huntress, the best of her kind. She’s incredibly dangerous, a fighter with hundreds of years of experience and you’re all better off not crossing paths with her.”

“You sound a bit too admiring for my taste,” Liam bit. “Our literal purpose is to get rid of bloodsuckers, I think we can decide who we fight for ourselves.” 

“Of course, Liam,” Carlisle gave in. “He was just warning you not to underestimate her. It’s your call, your pack and your town to protect.”

“It’s not my pack,” Liam said with a huff. “I’m just part of it.” 

“How come? I thought you were Payne’s descendant,” Carlisle sounded genuinely surprised at the information. Louis hadn’t thought about it yet, but it would make sense for Liam to be the alpha if the stories were all true. 

“I haven’t taken on my duties yet, but that’s really none of your business is it?” Liam grumbled. “Lou, can I just talk to you please?”

“Alright,” Louis said, picking up the phone again and putting it back to his ear. “You know that they can still hear you though, right?” 

“It’s impolite to eavesdrop,” Liam said loudly and everyone turned back to the map at hand, pretending not to listen. Louis snorted a lonely laugh. “If you know more about the bloodsucker, you should come and tell Sam.” 

“I can’t leave, Liam,” Louis said with a sigh. “She’s after me, and she’s getting cocky. I saw her today.” 

“She’s _what?_ ” Liam half-screamed. “What does she want from you?”

“It’s a revenge plan,” Louis explained, pausing for a moment to gather his thoughts. “She wants to get back at Harry for taking Zayn from her. Even though he left her of his own volition. She lost a war because of it and now thinks it would only be fair for Harry to lose me.” 

“I swear to God, Louis,” Liam’s voice thundered through the speaker, loud enough that even a human in the same room could’ve heard it. “I get that you’re in love and all, but please, get the fuck away from there.” 

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Louis shook his head. “This entire family has been protecting me for weeks, they’re good people Liam. It took me two weeks to find a way to even get to Rosemarkie because they were guarding me so closely. Harry almost lost his mind waiting for me to get back from you. And now him, Esme and Gemma are literally running home from a hunting trip in the south to get back to me.” 

“It’s his fault, isn’t it?” Liam snapped. “He better be protecting you if he’s already pulled you into this shitshow.” 

“It really hurts me that you would say something like that,” Louis whispered, his voice breaking. “You know me well enough to know that I really love Harry and that I don’t care what he is. Or what you are, for that matter.” 

“Well, at least I’m not dead and I don’t have to drink blood to sustain myself,” Liam spat. “I have to go and report this to the others now. Make sure none of your ‘friends’ eat you until I call you back.” 

Liam hung up before Louis could reply anything to that. This wasn’t just a joking comment about ‘stinky vampires’ anymore, this was Liam truly showing how much he hated them. That he didn’t make a difference between this family and the rest of them. This was Liam telling Louis that who he loved was wrong, and it pulled at something deep within him that he thought he’d overcome.

Louis looked up to find Alice standing above him and wondered when he had knelt down. She pulled him up and led him to the chair he’d been in a few minutes ago. A second later she’d placed a couple of kleenex and a glass of water before him. This time Louis physically felt calming energy coming to him from Zayn in waves. What a shitshow of a day. And now this?

“He’s my best friend,” Louis whispered. 

“I know,” Alice frowned.

“I’d just gotten him back,” Louis shook his head in disbelief. 

“He’ll calm down,” Niall threw in. “If he’s truly your friend, he’ll realise that he’s being ridiculous and come back with an apology.” 

“Let’s hope,” Louis nodded. “Can I take a shower, please? I’m still in my footie kit. I reek.” 

“Of course,” Carlisle nodded with a sad smile. “I will call your father and let him know that you’ve fallen asleep and are staying over.” Louis nodded, wondering how Carlisle had enough room in his brain to even consider this. 

“She’s not going to go after him, is she?” Louis asked quietly, not really keen on knowing the answer. 

“No,” Zayn shook his head. “That would be out of character.” Louis hoped that he was right. 

Alice motioned for him to have another sip of water before she led him to the bathroom upstairs and handed him a towel from the cabinet. She pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before she left, quietly closing the door behind her.

When he was alone, no calming Zayn or anyone in sight, he just sat down on the toilet for a couple minutes and cried. He wiped his face with toilet paper, blew his nose and stripped down to take his shower. After surveying the obnoxious amount of body washes and shampoos in the cabinet, he settled on the shampoo which he recognised by its fruity scent, even though it said ‘for curly hair’ on the bottle and a body wash with a fancy french label that smelled like lavender. 

When he got back downstairs, he knew his eyes were still rimmed red, but he’d gotten out of his sweaty kit and put on a brave smile. He tried to follow the discussion about different tactics to catch Ann-Marie, hoping as plans developed, and deflating with everyone when either Zayn or Alice had to inevitably cut in and tell them why she would figure it out every time. 

He didn’t know when he’d fallen asleep but when he woke up, it was to a loud bark out on the terrace. Everyone looked to Alice, who looked bewildered.

“I didn’t see him coming,” she whispered. “How did I not see him coming?” Her usually melodic voice was shrill for the very first time since Louis had known her.

“That might explain why you lose sight of Ann-Marie everytime she enters their territory,” Carlisle thought out loud. “Maybe they’re blind spots.” 

“Who?” Louis asked, rubbing his eyes and unfolding his limbs from the uncomfortable position he’d slept in. “What time is it?” 

“Around ten thirty,” Niall said. So Harry would be back soon. Another loud bark sounded through the night. “For God’s sake someone let the dog in.” 

“What dog?” Louis looked around and saw two massive yellow eyes behind the terrace door. 

When nobody moved, he got up and turned on the porch light to see better. In front of the glass door was a giant sand-coloured wolf. He was almost as tall as Louis himself. Louis recognised those kind eyes. He opened the door. 

“Liam?” he asked and the wolf nodded, nudging him with his snout. “Uh, come in?” The wolf shook his head, lifting an enormous paw over his nose and backing away a little. “They stink?” Liam barked with a short nod. “Um, okay…” Louis turned towards the Styles family, who had all gotten up and were watching the wolf with attentive eyes. “What now?”

“Well, if he wants to talk, he’ll have to change back,” Niall reasoned. The fur on Liam’s back started standing up and he shivered. “What? We don’t have time to play charades.” 

Liam came back and nudged Louis again, placing his head underneath Louis’ hand as if he were to pet him. His fur was light brown with some of the hairs having darker tips in spots and it was soft. Louis buried his hand in it and spread his fingers. The distance from his thumb to his pinky finger barely spanned across three quarters of the space between Liam’s intelligent eyes. 

“You want to talk to me?” Louis asked and Liam nodded under his hand. 

“You’re not going out of our sight, Louis,” Zayn said, stepping forward. 

“We could talk in the garage?” Louis suggested. “Maybe the cars mask the vampire scent if he’s so sensitive to it.” Louis looked around and seemingly nobody had any argument against it. Liam raised his wolf-shoulders in an unnatural shrug. Louis suppressed a giggle at the way Liam tried to move his wolf-body in the same manner as he would his human one. “See you there.”

They opened the small door on the side of the garage and Liam’s wolf form barely fit through it. He went to a corner and Louis could hear the bones in his body cracking as he changed back. It drove a shiver down his spine. The human Liam came out of the corner wearing only gym shorts. Louis shivered again.

“Hi,” Louis said, standing amidst the vampires. He hadn’t placed himself there, rather it seemed like they had formed a loose circle around him. 

“You really have a whole entourage of vampire bodyguards,” Liam laughed. “I knew Sam’s plan was shit.” 

“What are you on about?” Louis resisted the urge to wrap the half-naked Liam in one of the white sheets covering some of the cars in the Styles’ garage. 

“He didn’t send you?” Carlisle asked. 

“No, Doc,” Liam turned to him. “Your little reminder of who I am was exactly what I needed tonight, so thanks.” Liam stayed fairly far away from the group, pacing up and down a little bit. “I told them what you told me, but Sam blew it completely out of proportion. He went on a whole tirade about how our ancestors were wrong to trust you lot and that our purpose was to protect the innocent and whatnot. He ended it with saying that we should attack tonight, as long as you’re not all here, to ‘rescue’ Lou.” 

“From us?” Niall asked, huffing a laugh. 

“Yeah,” Liam shrugged. “He said you were all the same, no matter which blood ‘allegedly’ sustained you and that the treaty was old news.” 

“Wait a minute,” Louis threw in, crossing his arms. “You sounded like you would have agreed to that on the phone earlier. What changed your mind?” 

“I’m sorry I said those things, Tommo,” Liam stepped forward and looked him in the eye. “You’ve probably had one hell of a day, if the way you look is anything to go by…” 

“Fuck off.”

“It’s true,” Liam laughed. “And I said all of those things in the heat of the moment. I was worried about you and my natural inclination was to look for a bad guy. That’s no excuse, but I hope you can forgive me. By the time I had recounted our phone call to the others, I had realised that Harry was definitely not the bad guy. He must properly love you.” 

“Pray tell,” Louis rolled his eyes. “How did you come to that conclusion?” 

“Why else would you be enough of a target for this lady?” Liam asked, seemingly repeating something he’d already argued tonight. 

“Why else would Harry put his entire family in danger just to protect you? If this...thousand year old leech thinks you’re enough of a target to make him regret taking her...guy out of her army or whatever. You said something about war, right?” Liam seemed to have lost his thread of thought for a moment, but Louis nodded to encourage him to finish. 

“Yeah, right. So whatever position he was in,” Liam looked to Zayn now and Louis wondered how he knew which one of them it was. “You made the decision to leave, mate. And so did I.” 

“Everything in me railed against the idea of attacking you,” Liam said now, looking each of the vampires in the eye. “So when Sam tried to get me to submit to him, I took on my birthright and told him to fuck off. And now I’m here.”

“What you did was incredibly noble,” Carlisle said. “It speaks of your heritage, Ephraim was a just and good leader. I’m sorry you had to leave your pack behind, we can never repay you for that, but you’re more than welcome to stay with us.” 

“Thank you,” Liam nodded. 

“You were right, Niall,” Louis said and turned to Liam. “He said if you were truly my friend, you would come and apologize. And you did it in record time.”

“What can I say? I’m an athlete,” Liam grinned. Louis went over to hug Liam tight. His skin was burning hot, even in the cold of the concrete garage.

“Thank you,” Louis whispered. “You really need to put some clothes on.” 

“I’m fine,” Liam laughed it off. “Actually, I’m not sure what Sam is planning so I’d rather stay outside, where I can properly breathe, and look out for the pack.” 

“However you feel most comfortable,” Carlisle nodded. 

“Harry, Gemma and Esme will be home in about an hour,” Alice informed everyone. “Well, Harry will be, the others are about half an hour behind him.” 

“Please tell me you have some tea in this house somewhere,” Louis begged. “I desperately need a cuppa if you don’t want me to start climbing the walls. I’ll even drink it without milk.” 

“We have tea and milk,” Alice laughed, linking her arm through Louis' and starting to walk inside the house again. “We have to keep up appearances and go shopping from time to time, you know?”

“See ya,” Liam called, before slipping back out into the night. 


	18. Becoming Bait

##  _“Kiss a lover,_ _  
_ _Dance a measure,_ _  
_ _Find your name_ _  
_ _And buried treasure._ _  
_ _  
_ _Face your life,_ _  
_ _It's pain,_ _  
_ _It's pleasure,_ _  
_ _Leave no path untaken.”_ __  
― Neil Gaiman

Louis barely had time to notice the door opening when Harry was already crashing into him with a sweeping hug. Good thing his teacup was already empty, otherwise the contents would’ve spilled all over the walls and floor as Harry spun him around in a circle. He put him back on his feet and steadied his shoulders, giving him a quick once-over to assess if he was hurt in any way. The only thing that really hurt was the way in which Louis’ smile threatened to split his face in half. 

“I’m okay,” Louis assured. “Niall was there and brought me here as soon as possible. Charlie thinks I’m just sleeping over.” 

Harry took Louis’ chin and led him to press their lips together in a soft kiss. They hugged again, tight as ever and Louis could feel the smile spread on Harry’s face as he buried his nose in his hair. “You used my shampoo,” he whispered. 

“I missed you,” Louis admitted, having a hard time shrugging in the tight embrace he was caught in. 

“Why is Liam running circles around our house?” Harry asked, looking up without releasing Louis. 

“He warned us that Sam wanted to attack us and ‘rescue’ Louis,” Zayn said, even though Harry was probably gathering that information from all of their thoughts. 

“Sam,” Harry thought for a moment. “I thought Liam was the alpha?” 

“Well, he is now,” Carlisle threw in. “But he had to leave his pack behind to warn us.” 

“You have a true friend in that wolf,” Harry said to Louis. “Even though I admit that I don’t particularly like the thought of you spending time with a creature as dangerous and impulsive as him, I will never be able to repay him for what he did tonight.” 

“I don’t think he did it for you,” Louis pointed out. “It’s me who should be thanking him profusely. And I just want to point out the fact that he showed up in full wolf form and let me pet him like a giant dog. I think he’s got it under control.” Harry contemplated that for a while, nodding at Louis and turning to address everyone at large.

“What’s the plan, then?” he asked. “Now that a wolf attack has been circumvented.” 

“We don’t have one yet,” Alice said. “Gemma and Esme should be back soon. We should wait and fill them in before we get back to planning.” 

Everyone agreed, spreading out in groups of two or three around the living room and the kitchen. Harry led Louis to one of the comfily padded and cushioned window-benches and they spent the next half hour talking quietly in each other’s arms, Louis in Harry’s lap. Louis had a hard time seeing Harry in the dark, with only the moonlight backlighting him, but he didn’t want to turn the lights on. He preferred touching over Harry’s hands and his arms, his shoulders, his neck and his face. It felt like the final calm before the storm and Louis needed to ground himself in Harry’s presence to make sure he was there and alert once they got back to the planning table. It was almost unsettling how big of a difference it made to have him here. 

“I feel like as long as we’re together, we can figure this out,” Louis whispered into a slow, comforting kiss. 

“I felt lost and distraught on the way back, but you were my only destination,” Harry explained. “Now I’m here and everything has settled.” 

“You said on the phone that I was strong,” Louis remembered. “Truth is, I’m not...But you make me.” 

“It’s entirely mutual, darling.” 

As they were discussing different strategies to lure Ann-Marie into a trap, Louis listened intently, but stayed mostly quiet. They had started out with each of them having a seat around the table but at some point he had moved to sit in Harry’s lap, trying to find some semblance of comfort in this dire situation. 

“She would never come at us if we stand as a unit,” Zayn repeated for what felt like the millionth time that night. The sun was slowly rising and it was getting lighter every minute. Louis was tired. 

“That means back to the drawing board,” Niall sighed. 

“I’ve listened to every intricate plan you’ve come up with for hours,” Louis spoke up, feeling the heads turn towards him. “And the one common theme of why they won’t work is that she doesn’t have a reason to attack if I’m off hiding somewhere.” 

“No,” Harry said immediately, before Louis could finish his thought. 

“Yes,” Louis rolled his eyes. “The reason you’re not going to get her anywhere is because you keep me out of it completely. If she thinks she can safely get to me, like she could’ve after practice, she will try and attack at some point. She won’t come out if I’m constantly surrounded by all seven of you...and maybe Liam on top of that.” 

“He has got a point,” Niall agreed. 

“No,” Harry repeated. “You’re not putting yourself in danger.” 

“We’ve been trying to come up with something for the past seven hours, love,” Louis pointed out. 

“And we’re going to continue trying to find a way to do this without putting you in harm’s way,” Harry said stubbornly. 

“You’re not going to find a way,” Louis insisted. “Alice, if I hypothetically act as bait, will she fall for it?” 

“I can’t see anything unless we have a concrete plan,” Alice frowned, pulling a face as if these constantly changing plans were giving her a headache. Louis guessed it must be exhausting for her. 

“Zayn?”

“If we do it smartly,” Zayn nodded slowly, looking at Harry’s enraged face apologetically. “You know I don’t want to put Louis in danger, but this might be the only way we can take care of the problem,” he said quietly. “We can’t do it in an obvious manner, especially not after we circled around him so tightly yesterday. I’m sure she’ll notice us fortifying our protections soon. This is the only idea that I could see coming to fruition up until now.” 

“What if we take the fight up to that old manor I wanted to restore? The one in the forest outside of Killen?” Esme asked, taking this opportunity to properly speak up for the first time. “I’d rather it wouldn’t come down to it, but if it has to, it should be in a remote area.” 

“Would you really not mind, love?” Carlisle asked, taking his wife’s hand. “We might destroy more than you think.” 

“It’s basically in ruins already,” Esme shrugged lightly. “I’m going to have to rebuild most of it anyway and I would rather the fight happened somewhere where nobody can just happen upon it and get hurt.” 

“Okay,” Niall nodded. “So we have a location. How do we get her to go there?” 

“She wouldn’t be able to resist following me at this point, right?” Louis asked, leaning forward from Harry’s embrace. 

“No,” Harry said again. 

“Hear me out.” Louis linked their fingers on his thigh, stroking over the back of Harry’s hand comfortingly. “If I go with one person instead of an entourage...At this point she’ll have to take the chance, no? The defences are only going to get higher with time. She knows that we know she’s here and she’s not going to let me see her one more time without doing anything after yesterday.”

“So we split up,” Niall concluded. “And regroup there.” 

“Exactly,” Louis nodded. “If we all leave in different directions, she’s going to follow me and the one person I’m with.” 

“I’m going with you,” Harry said. 

“No,” Zayn cut in. “I’ll go. I’m the most experienced fighter here and I know her best.” Harry tilted his head back and let out a scream of frustration.

“Harry,” Carlisle waited until his son looked him in the eyes. “You know there’s nobody who is better suited to protect Louis than Zayn. And Ann-Marie has a history of underestimating him.” 

“I hate this plan,” Harry grumbled. 

“You have to let Louis be part of the operation otherwise I don’t see it ending well,” Alice reasoned. “She’s done taunting us and if we don’t control the situation in which she gets to him, she’s going to snag him the moment one of us lets their guard down. Which is going to happen sooner or later.” 

“I said I hated it, not that I have a better one,” Harry admitted. He turned to Louis. “If anything happens to you I will never be able to forgive myself.” 

“Nothing will happen to me,” Louis assured, thinking that if something did happen to him, he would do enough forgiving for the both of them. “Zayn will protect me.” 

“Protect you from what?” Liam asked, poking his head through the terrace door. “Can I come in?”

“Yes, of course,” Esme smiled encouragingly. 

“The sun has come up,” Liam explained, cleaning the dirt off his bare feet on the foot mat before walking in. “I figured if Sam was going to attack, he would’ve done it while it was dark.” 

“Thank you for looking out,” Carlisle nodded. 

“You must be starving after running all night,” Esme said empathetically. “Let me make you some breakfast, it’s the least I can do.” 

Liam looked to Louis with a quizzical expression, one that wondered if he could trust this breakfast to be blood-free. 

“Actually,” Louis chimed in. “I’ll sign up for that too, if you’d be so kind, Esme. I think those of us with human-ish metabolisms could benefit from a meal.” 

“Of course, love,” she stood up and sped over to the kitchen, only making one small stop on her way to affectionately rub Louis’ shoulder. 

Liam looked around again and carefully approached the seat that Louis had vacated at the table. He sat down with a grunt and rubbed his face, slapping it a couple times on each cheek to stay alert. 

“So I assume you’ve come up with a plan to get rid of this woman by now?” he asked into the round. 

“Yes,” Louis said. 

“We’re working on it,” Harry answered at the same time. 

“Ah,” Liam looked between the two of them for a while, a small smile forming on his lips. Harry rolled his eyes and Louis really wanted to know what Liam was thinking, but he didn’t get a chance to ask.

“I’ll go over what we have right now,” Niall started, calling everyone’s attention to him. He unfolded another page of the old map that was still on the table. “Esme had the idea to take the inevitable fight to a place that’s remote and not too precious to damage. She’s started drawing up plans to restore this ruin of a manor outside of Killen,” he pointed to where it was on the map.

“Yeah,” Liam nodded. “I stumbled upon it when I got lost while off-trail hiking last summer. That place is pretty much just three walls without a roof at this point.” 

“We’re gonna get Ann-Marie to go there by splitting up into three groups,” he continued explaining. “We’ll take separate cars in different directions and she will follow the one Louis is in.”

“Huh?” Liam looked around the table as if to find an indication that they were joking. “Are you out of your mind? Why would you include Louis in this?!” 

“That’s what I said,” Harry agreed. “It’s too dangerous.” Liam nodded in agreement.

“It’s the only way to get her to where we want her. She wants revenge and she will stop at nothing to hurt Harry,” Gemma threw in – to everyone’s surprise. She’d sat there completely silent and unmoving all night. Louis looked at her with big eyes, trying to decipher the look on her face. “What?” she asked, looking around and seeing expectant looks on everyone’s faces. “Listen, Louis is part of this family now. I was clearly wrong to fear he would betray us, when he’s willing to risk his life for our peace. I’ve done my best to try and hate him, not at last because he’s dating my little brother, but he’s a decent person and I’m happy for them, bla, bla, bla...It may take me some more time to warm up to his dog, but we have to stick together now.” She shot a brilliant smile Liam’s way and leaned back in her seat, clearly feeling she had already said too much. Liam muttered something about bloodsuckers and respect.

“Sick burn, baby,” Niall high-fived her and got back to business. “So we leave in groups, she follows Louis and Zayn, who is our most experienced fighter.” 

“I can see that,” Liam grumbled. “No offence, but you are one scary-looking lad.” 

“What?” Louis asked, turning to face Zayn with his perfectly symmetrical face and meticulously styled jet-black hair. Scary wasn’t the first adjective he would’ve used to describe him – broody maybe, awe-inducing even, but not scary. 

“The scars, Tommo,” Liam glanced at Zayn’s forearm, exposed from underneath his rolled up sleeve. 

“He can’t see them,” Harry explained. “They’re barely visible to the human eye.” 

Zayn pulled out his phone from his pocket and turned on the flash, shining it onto his pale skin and Louis leaned over to examine what they were talking about. He saw faint marks on Zayn’s skin where the light hit it directly, even paler than he already was. As he moved the flash around, Louis realised that his arm was covered in crescent-moon-shaped marks. Presumably his whole body was. 

“Are those bitemarks?” he asked, tracing his fingers over one of them. 

“Yes,” Zayn pocketed his phone again. “Newborn vampires are hard to control—Some would say rabid.” 

“So,” Niall started again, wanting to get this over with. “She goes after them but we arrive at the same scene only moments after her and boom! We’ve got her.” 

“Alright,” Liam nodded, distracted by the steaming pile of food on the plate Esme placed in front of him. She’d made omelettes and sausages with toast for both Liam and Louis. Louis leaned forward and took a deep breath, his stomach grumbling as he realised he hadn’t eaten since lunch the previous day. 

“Mmh,” Louis hummed around the first bite. “Thank you, Esme. This is just what I needed.” 

“Yeah,” Liam nodded. “How can somebody who doesn’t eat cook so well?” he asked, making everybody laugh. 

“So, Liam,” Niall said after a short while. “Are you in?” 

“Uh,” Liam swallowed a large chunk of toast and Louis was honestly worried he was going to choke someday soon if he didn’t start chewing his food properly. “Sure,” he shrugged. “It’s not like I have anything better to do.” 

“You should go and talk to your family, your pack,” Carlisle pointed out. “I’m sure they’re worried about you.” 

“Eh,” Liam waved it off. “I’d rather let them stew in their own grease for a while.” 

“What if they joined us?” Niall asked suddenly. “Having your pack with us would certainly throw her off. She’s figured out that we don’t go to Rosemarkie, I’m sure she’d never suspect us teaming up.” 

“If it were my pack right now,” Liam grumbled. “I’d consider it.” 

“All the more reason to go,” Louis pointed out, fully on board with Niall’s idea. 

“I can’t see them, Niall,” Alice complained. “How would I know what was going to happen?”

“Maybe you’ll learn to appreciate your talent more if you have to live like one of us for a couple hours,” Niall laughed. “The surprise would tilt the odds in our favour for sure, right Z?” 

“Well,” Zayn considered. “I certainly didn’t suspect the idea to come up and we would outnumber her even further. Any help against her is only welcome in my book. There’s a reason she’s been roaming the planet since the fall of Rome.” Louis wasn’t sure if Zayn was exaggerating now or not, but the phrase had its desired effect. 

“If I go back and they accept me or follow me,” Liam started, shoveling his last bit of omelette onto the final corner of his toast. “I’ll tell them about the plan and ask if they want to join. No promises. I won’t force anybody to do anything.” 

“Of course not,” Esme nodded. 

“And that is the reason why they will accept you, I’m sure of it,” Carlisle agreed. “Force is not the way to lead, regardless of how peaceful or turbulent times are.”

“We’ll see.” Liam neither accepted nor dismissed the advice, but his cheeks suspiciously gained colour indicating that he was pleased with the compliment.


	19. Making Amends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains mentions of rape and domestic abuse. It's not graphic, but please proceed with caution if that's a sensitive topic to you.

##  _“Is it useful to feel fear, because it prepares you for nasty events,  
or is it useless, because nasty events will occur whether you are frightened or not?”_ _  
_ _— Lemony Snicket_

Once Louis and Liam had finished their breakfast, they insisted on doing the washing up. They stood together in the kitchen, Liam doing the washing and Louis drying their plates and cutlery. It only took about five minutes, but it gave the situation a sense of normalcy while everybody else was flitting about the house in preparation for tonight. 

“Thank you,” Louis said, as Liam handed him the final fork. “You risked everything to protect me and…” He swallowed, getting choked up for a second. “It means a lot to me that you accept my love for Harry. You know, it’s not just being gay at this point...It’s the fact that he’s what you’re designed to fight and yet you see us for who we are. You see that we’re two people, who belong together, regardless of gender and...species?” Louis drew his brows together over the last word.

“Seeing the two of you together,” Liam reached for the kitchen towel to dry his hands. “You’d have to be blind not to see that you belong together. Your dynamic is astounding.” 

“What do you mean?” Louis giggled. “The first time you saw us together we disagreed immediately.” 

“Yes,” Liam laughed. “But you’re so in tune with each other. When he moves, you move. It’s like you’re magnetically connected or something. I don’t know, man, I’m not the best at science…But it’s like, he does something and you instinctively act to compliment his movement. You’re clearly perfect for each other.” 

“Alright, alright,” Louis laughed again. “I’ll take it, professor. Thank you.” Liam took the towel and hit Louis’ bum as he moved out of the kitchen, the two of them dissolving into giggles as they walked out the door to watch Zayn and Niall practice a few moves for the fight. 

One after the other, everybody gathered on the lawn at the back of the house. They had all changed into more comfortable clothes, dark and appropriate for a fight. Louis and Liam sat down in the grass and watched as the vampires trained in pairs, moving quickly and each focussing on their strengths. 

Niall was as enthusiastic in his fighting as he was in everything else. His style was offensive and to the point. Alice and Harry seemed to use their talents to their advantage, always moving out of the way of an incoming attack a fraction of a second before they were hit and attacking from where their opponent didn’t expect it without a fail. Carlisle was obviously experienced, but his fighting style was defensive, just as the more timid Esme’s. Gemma was the most interesting to Louis, because out of all of them, he knew her the least. She moved as elegantly as she did doing anything at all, but she was strong and precise – a force to be reckoned with. 

“I can’t believe that one lady is so good at this that none of them would want to take it up with her alone,” Liam commented. “Look at how quick they all are. I have a hard time thinking anybody would scare Niall.” 

“Yeah,” Louis agreed. “She must be fucking unhinged.” 

“How are you feeling about it all?” Liam asked. “I’d be shitting my pants if I couldn’t turn into a giant wolf at will.” 

“I’m confident that we’ve come up with a good plan,” Louis shifted so his legs were splayed out to his side and he was leaning on one hand. He ripped out a handful of grass with the other, slowly letting it fall back on the ground piece by piece. “If you and the other wolves are going to be there, there’s no way we can lose, right?” 

“We’re strong,” Liam nodded. “But we’re not nearly as experienced as they are. I don’t want anybody to get hurt.” 

“I’m sure your watching this will be helpful to prepare the others though, right?”

“I hope so,” Liam yawned. “I gotta go soon. If I don’t I’ll be falling asleep before I can even talk to my pack.” He got up and started walking towards the forest. “I’ll yiff goodbye in my fursuit.” 

“If you ever say that again I will rip out each of your claws separately, Liam James Payne,” Louis laughed and let himself fall onto his back, listening to Liam’s cackle disappear into the woods. 

A minute later, the same big wolf from the night before appeared between the trees and trotted over on its weighty paws. Louis sat back up with a groan as he approached and petted his head when he was close enough. Liam laid down and dropped his heavy head on Louis’ lap, closing his eyes as Louis buried his hand behind his ears. They stayed like that for a while, appreciating the spring sun warming them up. Liam’s breath was evening out, his body somewhere on the verge between asleep and awake – until Louis picked up the grass he’d ripped out and slowly dropped it onto Liam’s snout, who sneezed and yipped comically as it fell into his nostrils. 

“No sleeping, ciad faol,” Louis giggled. “Get off your arse and go get your pack.” He ruffled Liam’s fur as he growled playfully and nudged him goodbye. 

Liam turned around on his way into the woods and barked a friendly goodbye at the group, who all wished him good luck, reminding him that they would be waiting for his call at dusk. Then he ran into the forest, his paws burying themselves into the soft ground and his muscles stretching with each long step. Louis waved after him tiredly and leaned back into the grass with a yawn. He fell asleep thinking of the future and hoping that one day his role in defending his newfound family would be fighting alongside them instead of acting as bait. 

When he woke up, he was lying on the couch in Harry’s room, barely audible violin music playing from the sound system. The soft light made him think it was probably the afternoon already. 

“Oh, good,” someone said at the door of the room. “You’re awake.” Louis sat up and watched Gemma walk in and close the door behind her. She handed him a tray with a bowl of pasta, an apple and a glass of water. 

He thanked her, taking it and carefully balancing it on his knees. He expected her to leave, but she stayed put, sitting down next to him and staring at the music shelf opposite them. Louis slowly took the fork and started eating. He’d considered her little speech at the planning table as a peace offering already, so he wasn’t sure what to expect from her now. 

“Harry said you like apples,” she said after a while. “I hope the pasta is okay, Esme told me how to make it. I haven’t cooked anything in about ninety years.” Louis giggled at the thought of that. 

“It’s perfect,” he smiled. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that for me.” 

“I wanted to,” she finally turned to look at him. “I’m not a dickhead, I promise.” 

“Alright,” Louis took a sip of his water. “I didn’t think you were.”

“I behaved like one.” 

“That you did,” Louis nodded. “I don’t know why, and you don’t have to tell me, but I hope we can be friends now.” 

“Can I tell you anyway?” she asked. “I would feel better if you understood.” 

“Of course,” Louis smiled encouragingly. 

“I was very unhappy for a long time,” she started, but ultimately shook her head with a small sigh and went for a different approach. “Has Harry told you how we got turned?” 

“No. He just told me when he was turned.” 

“Okay, well...When Carlisle turned Harry, it was because he was practically dead already. He and mum had the flu and as she was dying, she took Carlisle’s hand and begged him to do anything he could to get Harry to survive. She really insisted he do _anything at all_ to get him to survive, so when Harry was shipped off to the death ward prematurely, Carlisle took him to his house and bit him.” 

She took a deep breath before going on. “With mum and Haz gone, our dad wanted to marry me off as fast as possible. When I turned twenty, he gave me away to the highest bidder. Royce King was rich and extravagant, the most eligible bachelor in town, and I must admit I liked the idea of becoming his—Until the night before our wedding, when I was walking home late at night from my friend’s house and ran into him and his mates. They were drunk off their faces, out on his stag night. He grabbed me and showed me off...Then he started offering me around.” Louis grimaced, he put the tray down on the floor and turned his whole body to Gemma, listening intently. He was sure it wasn’t easy for her to tell this story. 

“It was nineteen-o-nine. You can imagine that didn’t end well for me,” she smiled sadly, looking at Louis when he took her hand. “They left me to die in the street that night, joking about how Royce would have to find himself a more durable wife next time. I was ready to die, but Harry found me in the early hours of the morning and brought me to Carlisle.” She pulled her legs up onto the couch, hugging her knees. 

“Now, the reason I understand revenge plans so well, is because I carried one out myself.” She stared ahead grimly. “I’ve never tasted human blood, Louis, but I spilled it making sure Royce and the others would never do what they did to me to anybody else. I left him for last, Roy, so he would know what awaited him. I waited for the perfect opportunity to get each of them alone and I wore my wedding dress that last night. He thought he was being murdered by my ghost.” Louis shivered at the thought, the image of Gemma in a white lace gown reddened with the blood of her rapist burning itself into his head.

“Now, you may be asking yourself what any of that has to do with you.” She played with the hem of her shirt sleeve. 

“To be honest,” Louis admitted. “I’d completely forgotten that it had anything to do with me in the first place.” 

“Well,” she looked up at him again. “It doesn’t really, but it may help you understand that it took me a long time to value this second chance that Carlisle gave me. After my revenge, I was still just a shell of myself.” 

“It was a traumatic experience,” Louis noted seriously. “You’re incredibly strong for being able to tell that story so concisely now. It doesn’t matter how you survived and what you became, you needed time to process what had happened and everything that followed. It’s no joke to take somebody’s life, no matter what they did to you.” 

“I know that now,” she smiled another bittersweet smile. “But back then I blamed myself and everyone around me. I never said it out loud, but I resented both Harry and Carlisle for damning me to live with this for eternity. I was never the most joyous person to be around, but I’ve learned to be kinder to myself. Maybe that’s why Niall is my other half? He reminds me that sometimes change is good and that it’s okay to enjoy life.” 

“You turn much softer when he’s around,” Louis told her. “How couldn’t you? He’s lightheartedness incarnate.” 

“He is,” Gemma grinned. “My lucky leprechaun.” She took some time to get her thoughts back on track. “Anyway, I didn’t say out loud how I felt, but it’s impossible to keep secrets from Harry. I made him blame himself for my misery too. I think that’s partly why he left for a while. He returned and he was different but we both overcame what was between us. It took me decades to accept that this life wasn’t damnation. I only recently became fully happy again, but then you came along and changed everything within weeks. I simply couldn’t take it. I thought you were going to expose us and ruin my perfect little life.” 

“I would never,” Louis vowed. 

“I know,” she took his hand with her cold fingers. “You make Harry happy, you’ve changed him permanently and I can see that now. I didn’t see that he was still living his life considering himself damned, but the difference you made is clear. I was just cynical in the beginning. I’m sorry for treating you like I did and I hope you can help Harry accept he has the right to be happy in this life, like Niall did for me.” 

“Everything is forgiven,” Louis nodded. “Thank you for telling me all this. It means a lot that you trusted me with it.” Gemma just squeezed his hand again and stood up. 

“I’ll tell Harry you’re up,” she said on her way to the door. “He probably thinks I’m plotting to murder you in here.” 

They spent the rest of the day coupling up in different rooms of the house, taking time to reassure each other and mentally preparing for what was to come with sundown. As the sky turned to different hues of pink and orange, they all gathered in the living room, where Harry had started playing the piano for Louis some time ago. Louis was sitting at the window, alternating between watching the sunset over the trees and watching Harry play. Harry’s hair did that little thing it did sometimes where, no matter how often he pulled that one little pesky strand of hair back, it kept falling into his face. Louis giggled when he saw him try to blow it out of his eyes without taking his fingers off the keys. Louis also took the time to think about how he felt about the things that Gemma had told him about immortal life. How it would weigh on him that he had to leave his family behind for it and how he would deal with the thirst for human blood. Alice plopped down next to him and bumped their shoulders together happily. 

“I had a vision,” she whispered into his ear. 

“A good one it seems,” Louis grinned at her happy expression. “What was it about?” He hoped it was a favourable outcome of the night—Maybe she had found a way to see around the wolves?

“Your wedding,” she whispered. 

“My what?” Louis laughed. “I’d rather focus on surviving the next twenty-four hours, please.” 

“You laugh now,” she shrugged. “But you’re going to come back from your honeymoon a _changed_ man.” Louis raised his eyebrows at the way she empathized the word and she nodded with a grin. 

“Is that really the deal he will offer me?” Louis laughed. The music stopped and Harry appeared in front of them. 

“Alice,” he chided playfully. “Will you ever stop ruining my plans by telling everybody about them before the time comes?” 

“I was just making sure you couldn’t take it back,” Alice shrugged and poked her tongue out at him. 

“Exactly,” Louis nodded. “What if you suddenly got cold feet and I never even knew my options?” 

“My feet are always cold,” Harry deadpanned and the three of them erupted into giggles. 

Louis’ phone rang ten minutes after the sun had fully set. Liam told him that he’d been nervous to call on his pack, but he’d howled their meeting call and soon enough the guys were gathering around him. Sam had taken the longest to come and while they were waiting, Liam pondered how strange it was to be a wolf without everyone else’s thoughts running through him. When Sam was there, he could hear him, but it wasn’t the way it usually was, not every thought, just what he wanted to say. He apologized, saying he was glad that Liam had stopped him the previous night because he’d realised that his reaction was impulsive and not in the best interest of the pack. He admitted that he’d held on to his borrowed position for too long. 

When Sam laid down on his back, baring his neck and submitting to Liam, it was like a shiver went through all of them and suddenly Liam could hear them again. He vowed not to force them to do anything ever, but laid out the plan and asked them if they were going to join him. They all followed him, except for Sam, who said he would stay in Rosemarkie looking after Seth, who was likely to turn for the first time tonight. Liam guessed that it would probably take Sam a while to warm up to him again, but they could count on four wolves showing up at the manor. 

They all sighed in relief at the good news and after Carlisle had spoken a few encouraging words, they made their way to the garage and split up. Zayn and Louis took Carlisle’s car, Harry had Alice and Carlisle with him and Niall was with Gemma and Esme. Before they opened the garage doors, Harry pulled Louis aside and kissed him passionately. 

“Be careful,” he whispered. “Please stay out of the crossfire.” 

“I will,” Louis promised. “But you have to take care of yourself, too.” 

“I love you,” Harry nodded and kissed him one last time. 

“I love you.”


	20. A Broken Heart, One Not Beating

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains descriptions of a fight. Again, it's not graphic, but I thought I'm better off safe than sorry with the warnings.

##  _“With loins in mantle black concealed,_ _  
_ _Within their fleshless hands they wield_ _  
_ _The torch, that with a dull red glows, -_ _  
_ _While in their cheek no life-blood flows;”_ _  
_ __— Friedrich Schiller

As Zayn was driving, he hummed something that sounded suspiciously like the National Anthem and Louis had a hard time not calling out the ridiculousness of it. He leaned back in his seat and watched the trees go by the window serenely. He wondered how he could be so sure that everything would turn out well...Maybe it was Alice’s vision that made him feel like that? If she’s seen the far away future of their wedding, they would have to survive the night. 

“We’re almost there,” Zayn interrupted Louis’ musings. 

“Good. Do you see her anywhere?” Louis wondered. 

“Not yet,” Zayn shrugged. “She might want to stay back and follow our scent. The other’s routes should give her enough time to do that, so she’ll still arrive before them.” 

“Okay,” Louis pulled the sleeves of the black jumper he’d borrowed from Harry over his hands. “Do we get out when we get there?” 

“Yes,” Zayn nodded. “We should look around the manor as if we’re checking it out for Esme, that will make her less suspicious.” 

Zayn stopped the car in front of the ruins a minute later. As they got out, Louis wondered how Esme even planned on rebuilding this mess. Liam had been right, there were essentially only three walls of it left, like a dollhouse. The roof was completely gone, but the second floor was intact and were the stairs leading up to it. They didn’t look too trustworthy, but they were still there. The stained glass windows were almost completely blown out, shards of them littered around the ground. They walked around it first, Zayn keeping a watchful eye out for their tracker. Louis reached out to feel the smooth eroded stone of the walls and wondered how old the house may be. Some kids had spray painted clumsy tags on the farside of the interior. Louis truly hoped that they hadn’t picked a spot where the local youth met up. What if they put them in danger? 

“Shouldn’t she be here soon?” Louis asked, wondering if he was just impatient or if it really had been a long time since they had arrived. 

“Something’s off,” Zayn mumbled. “It can’t take her this long to find us.” 

“What does that mean?” Suddenly it felt like Louis innards simultaneously wanted to come out his throat and plummet to the earth. 

“I don’t know,” Zayn looked out over the hill they were on and his eye got caught on something Louis couldn’t see. “She’s coming. Stay behind me. If I tell you to run, you run and you take the car south. The key’s in the ignition and the tank will take you at least to Edinburgh.” 

“Got it,” Louis nodded, eyeing how far away the car was and taking note of any obstacles in his way so he wouldn’t stumble in the dark if it came to it. 

It wasn’t more than three breath’s time and they were face-to-face with the woman Louis only knew from a black and white portrait. With the moon being their only source of light, she did look almost colourless. Her skin was alabaster and her whiteblonde hair played around her shadowed face.

“Did you really think this would work, Zaynie?” she snarled. Her movements were quick and unnaturally jagged. She looked like a goddess of vengeance, dressed head-to-toe in tight black. “Did you really think you could take it up with me?” 

“To be honest,” Zayn said coldly. “I did. Maybe I overestimated your intrinsic desire to get things done quickly. You were awfully slow in finding us.” 

“Oh, he’s gotten feisty, this one,” she grinned, her perfect teeth fully on display, glimmering dangerously in the moonlight. “You used to worship me. What happened?” 

“I started seeing you for who you are,” Zayn explained, parrying her every move so Louis would stay in his shadow. “An unsophisticated, sadistic bitch.” 

“Ouchie,” Ann-Marie frowned exaggeratedly. “Before I tell you what took me so long, let me honestly say something, as an old friend: your eyes were so much more appealing in red. This awful yellow you’ve prescribed to because of the Styles boy doesn’t suit you at all.” 

“Have you ever considered that maybe Harry wasn’t the reason I left?” Zayn asked bitterly. Louis feared that she was starting to get under his skin. “I’m not just some toy that he stole from you, you know? It’s childish that you think by taking Louis from him, you could get justice. Clearly you’ve never loved anybody.” 

“I loved you,” she bit back. “But it was clearly a mistake. You were a great disappointment.” 

“See, that’s the problem isn’t it?” Zayn laughed mirthlessly, a perfect copy of her confident stance in front of Louis. “You loved me for what I did for you, not for who I was or who I am now. You can’t call it love if all you do is give somebody orders.” 

“Okay, so maybe I didn’t love you,” she admitted, stepping closer little by little. “But those idiots you live with now, they do, don’t they?” Zayn stayed silent and Louis held his breath, waiting for the blow of her next statement as her long shadow threatened to lick at Zayn’s boots. “Too bad I dropped a couple trees on their little cars on the way here. That’ll hold them up just long enough so that I can take you out, like I should’ve a hundred and fifty years ago,” she spit venom onto the ground as her fangs poked into her bottom lip. “And then I can grab that delicious smelling boy behind you and kill him just when his white knight arrives. How’s that sound?” 

Louis wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but with her fangs out like that, she sounded a bit like a cartoon snake. She was incredibly intimidating, and his body was reacting accordingly, but all he could think about was Kaa from The Jungle Book. 

“Sounds like you underestimate us all,” Zayn gritted through his teeth. Louis watched as his nails grew into claws and he took on the same defensive stance he had practiced with Esme earlier in the day. It seemed like a lifetime ago now, laying in the grass with Liam. Louis hoped that if she had really managed to hold up the others, at least the wolves would show up soon. 

“Let’s stop playing, Zaynie,” Ann-Marie taunted him. “Show me what you’ve got.” 

Louis took that as his cue to step back and hide around the corner, inside the mansion. He watched as they went at it without inhibitions, much more vicious and quicker than the practice fights he’d witnessed. They were moving quickly, jumping from one side of the hilltop clearing to the other and back within moments. Louis could hear the sounds of cracking and tearing but he wasn’t ever sure who was hitting who. Then, out of nowhere, Ann-Marie had Zayn in a chokehold. Louis saw them struggle for all of two seconds and watched as she took Zayn’s arm and swung his whole body up onto the second floor without batting an eyelash. 

She took a running start and jumped up after him, her feline movements reminding Louis of a tiger attacking. He heard two distinguished impacts on the floor above him and prayed that the brittle beams above his head would hold up. Nevertheless, he felt it safer to step out of the manor. It was dark. Even in the steady moonlight, Louis couldn’t see much further than a few feet. Now that he couldn’t see the fight anymore, all he could go by were the sounds, which were unhelpful at best and utterly useless at worst. There were grunts and scrapes, like nails on a chalkboard, and a couple times it sounded like thunderous collisions, but there was no way of hearing who had the upper hand. Until after one such thunderous collision he heard an ear-numbing tear and through it Zayn shouted “Run!” 

Louis knew he only had one chance. He took off towards the car in a sprint, jumping over a crater he’d noted before and reaching out for the car door handle already even though he was still about five steps away. He saw her shadow before he saw her hand reaching out to grab his arm and he knew he’d fucked it all up. He thought of how sure he’d been when he’d told Harry that nothing would happen to him and now he was in the air, mercilessly being yanked back from a full sprint. He could feel the joint in his shoulder struggling, but he was thrust against a wall before it could completely unhinge. 

“You’re fast for a human,” Ann-Marie hissed in his ear. “I saw you outpace all your little pigskin friends yesterday.” She pulled back to grin at him, her fangs dripping in venom and on full display. “Too bad I’m faster.” 

“You know that killing me is not going to make you happier, right?” Louis asked through gritted teeth. 

“Oh, it speaks,” she pulled back, almost surprised. Her lisp spewed venom in Louis’ face and he flinched back from it. 

“What will you gain from this?” he asked, determined to drag this out as long as possible. “You want to kill me to anger Harry, right? Do you want him to chase you then? To leave his family behind and dedicate his whole life to relieve you from whatever pain and emptiness you’re feeling inside?” It almost felt like Louis was acting in a stage drama now. He spoke clearly, his chin up and confident in the face of the Erinyes. “He won’t give you the satisfaction. He will leave you behind, just like Zayn did.” 

“Your heartbeat is awfully treacherous, kid,” she tried to get Louis to show a crack in his armour. “You act all confident and taunt me as if these weren’t your last words, but your heart betrays you. I can hear how frightened you are.” She leaned in and ran her nose along Louis’ pulse point, sniffing him for an extended breath. “I can smell it, too.” 

“It’s hard to control one’s heartbeat,” Louis shrugged the one shoulder that didn’t send bolts of pain through his entire body every couple seconds. “I assume you’ve forgotten since you were heartless even before your body froze to what it is now. I wonder what it was, that made you so coldblooded and savage...Did some old Count Dracula break your heart? Or was it a Countess?” Louis watched her face intently, seeing if any of his words caused a reaction. With the deep shadows emphasizing her features it was easy to pinpoint the moment he’d hit a nerve as the side of her mouth twitched into a frown for a split second. 

“Bingo,” Louis laughed grimly. “That must be why you despise mine and Harry’s happiness together. You know that internalized homophobia is a huge problem within the community, right? I can send you some links to help cope with it if you want. We all struggle with it sometimes.” Louis’ voice sounded more sincere in his own ears than he felt, though he did almost feel bad for her now. “I’m sure it was even harder back in ye olden days, when you were not only rejected for wanting to get frisky with your lady of choice, but they probably went to burn both of you at the stake for it.” 

“Enough!” Ann-Marie shrieked, sinking her claws into Louis’ forearm and smashing it against the wall beside his head. He could feel his bones giving away with the intensity and strength of the movement, the impact vibrating through his arm. New waves of pain were now pulsating through his entire left side in tandem with the pain he’d felt in his shoulder already. 

Ann-Marie pulled her claws out of his flesh slowly, ripping away at it and slicing through the knit fabric of Harry’s jumper. He watched as she slowly lifted her hand to her face, his own blood dripping down her fingers so dark it almost looked black. And her nostrils flared as she smelled the droplets that were staining the sleeve of her black blouse. 

Louis pressed himself against the wall, feeling his knees cave in under the pain and closed his eyes when he heard an ugly, guttural growl. He expected her to attack any second now, having seen the darkness creeping in over her cherry-red eyes. She must’ve been thirsty. There was no way she could resist his blood for long. 

It was confusing, unexpected when he was pushed to the ground, even though he was already sliding down. He prepared for a bite, pulling his shoulders up to his neck through the pain even though he knew it wouldn’t stop her. He thought about Harry and how at one point he would’ve been bitten by him, in an act of romance, to make sure they could be together forever. Wasn’t this an act of romance too, somehow? He’d put everything on the line to do his part in providing their happiness. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go, but maybe Louis had tilted the scales of his luck too far when he offered Harry his life in exchange for happily ever after. Maybe he’d cheated the system in finding the other half of his soul, fulfilled Plato’s Symposium, and the Fates had decided to snip his thread in retaliation…

Another deafening growl pulled Louis out of his reverie. He opened his eyes and saw three giant wolves cornering Ann-Marie, whose bloodied hand was once again formed into a deathly claw. So the wolves came just in time. Louis tried taking a deep breath, but as he had fallen onto his left side, the pain had spread to his ribs now. He slowly pulled himself up along the wall to relieve his damaged arm from the pressure, digging his nails into the century-old stone. The sounds of roaring, groaning and ripping throbbed in his head. When he finally had pulled himself up into a sitting position, he relaxed against the cold stone and closed his eyes as he took a couple long, shallow breaths. 

His eyes flitted open when he heard a pained yawp from the opposite side of the room. He could only barely make out a dark-furred wolf sliding along the wall he had no doubt been hurled into. Louis tried to stay conscious to follow the movements of the fight, but he caught his eyes slipping closed again and again, each time making it harder to re-open them. 

He caught a glimpse of Zayn jumping off the roof, a metal bar stuck in his chest. Darkness once more. A vision of a sand-coloured wolf was dragging someone’s leg outside, but his eyelids were sliding down again. He heard voices talking, but couldn’t discern the words they were saying, everything being drowned out by the red-hot pulsating pain in his arm. He thought he could hear Harry, but he wasn’t sure if that was really him or just what his subconscious made up to ease his pain. 

The next time he opened his eyes, he saw Harry’s face, looking down with concern and bathed in warm orange light. He reached out, not trusting his eyes or his voice to confirm the vision was real. And sure enough, there he was. 

“Louis, darling,” Harry said in a painstakingly worried voice. “Can you tell me where you’re injured?” 

Louis nodded slowly, making an effort to keep his eyes open. “She broke...forearm,” he rasped before clearing his throat. “Dislocated my shoulder.” 

“Nothing else?” Harry asked, his cold fingers gliding over Louis’ arm. His beautiful face was contorted into a concentrated frown. “Both on the left?”

Louis nodded, feeling his eyes slip shut again. He let them stay closed, listening to Harry’s voice as he explained to Carlisle what he could assess of Louis’ injuries. Carlisle hummed along and decided that an X-ray was needed to see how broken Louis’ arm was. There was a slight crackling sound in the background and every now and then a loud crack in the distance followed by what sounded like a log being thrown onto a pile. It smelled like frankincense and ash when Harry lifted him up carefully and carried him to a car. Somehow they had fashioned a sling and bound his arm to his body without him noticing. He only saw when he opened his eyes and found himself in the backseat of Carlisle’s car. Harry was holding him and whispering reassuring words to him as they drove along. He told him they were taking him to the hospital and that he was safe and that everything would be okay, that he loved him. He said it over and over until Louis was on a bed in the ER and a nurse fed him painkillers through an IV. 


	21. As Long As We Both Shall Live

##  _“According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves...  
And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself, whether he be a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the other's sight, as I may say, even for a moment...”_ _  
_ _― Plato, The Symposium_

Louis’ arm was still in a cast and fixed with a sling around his uninjured shoulder so he really didn’t understand why Alice insisted on fitting his suit right now. Not only was one of the sleeves completely uselessly hanging from his shoulder, but it was eight in the morning on a Saturday.

“Stop fidgeting,” she murmured around the fixing pins in her mouth. “I’m literally the fastest tailor on this planet and you can’t stand still for half a fucking minute.” Her voice was as melodic as ever, but mumbled around the pins, she sounded like an enraged toddler. Louis couldn’t help but laugh. She took the pins out of her mouth and fixed him with a stern look. “Louis William, I swear to God.” 

“Alright, alright,” he giggled one last time, taking a breath. “Jesus, you sound like my mum.” She rolled her eyes at him and got back to work, finishing a minute later with a satisfied hum. 

“Are we done?” Louis asked, a hopeful air to his voice. 

“Yes,” she nodded, packing her pincushion and scissors in their little case. “I’ll bring it back all finished tonight.” 

“Tonight?” he asked, shrugging off the jacket. “Why?”

“Didn’t Harry tell you you have to dress fancy?”

“Yes, but I thought I’d be fine in slacks and a nice shirt,” Louis sighed. “Do I really have to wear a suit?” 

“Yes,” Alice insisted strictly. “You don’t want to look underdressed next to Harry.” 

“I will look underdressed next to him no matter what I wear,” Louis laughed. “He wears silk pussy bows to school.” 

“You’re definitely not prepared for tonight’s outfit,” Alice shook her head. “He’s truly outdone himself.” Louis just groaned and slipped back into his joggers for the remainder of the day. At least he could have some semblance of comfort before he had to get back in that suit. He did have to give it to Alice though, the suit she’d made was more comfortable than any other he’d ever tried on. He was only happy it was all black, including the shirt she’d brought for him to wear. He’d been terrified it would come in a flashy colour or with a crazy pattern. Thankfully Alice knew what he liked. 

Louis felt like a sort of off-brand James Bond walking down the stairs to meet Harry that night. Not only was he dressed in all black, but Alice had fashioned a black sleeve for his cast somehow. She said it would ruin the pictures otherwise and Louis had just shrugged and let her dress him however she wanted. He’d given up on pretending that he wasn’t her very own Barbie doll at this point. She’d done his hair too, taking a blowdryer to it and putting in some fancy mousse that smelled like a mix between a bar of soap and the fumes of an oil refinery. He had to admit it made his soft fringe look just on the right side of windswept though. 

“Darling,” Harry said when Louis reached the bottom of the steps. “You look absolutely ravishing.” 

“I’m speechless,” Louis countered. He raked his eyes over Harry’s outfit and tried to take it all in, but consistently failed. Harry was standing in front of him in a sheer black blouse with frilly lace on the sleeves and a broad lace neck-tie. An elevated version of what Louis only knew from childish caricatures of vampires. His trousers were so high-waisted, they fit around his torso like a corset, ending just under his ribs. 

“And I thought I was fancy,” Louis murmured after a minute, stepping forward and letting his fingers trace over the neck-tie. 

Charlie cleared his throat behind them, cutting the tension mercilessly. He insisted on taking a couple pictures of them to send to Louis’ mum and retreated to the living room with a smooth “Don’t have too much fun!”

“Careful with the accessories…” Louis warned, unable to resist touching the soft lace hanging from Harry’s neck one more time. “People might draw conclusions.” He looked up at Harry and was blinded by his brilliant smile. 

“I don’t think others are as perceptive as you are,” he grinned. 

“Depends…” Louis grinned. “Will we have to magically alter Dad’s memory when he looks at the pictures and you don’t even show up in them?” 

“I hope not,” Harry laughed that laugh that Niall had named his ‘Louis-laugh.’ The one where he let out a surprised cackle at the tiniest comment Louis made and then snickered away while looking at him adoringly. “Alice has really outdone herself with this suit. It fits perfectly around your waist, even with the cast in the way,” he noted when he’d calmed down. 

“She knows what she’s doing,” Louis nodded. “Will you tell me where we’re going now?” 

“You’ll see,” Harry shook his head. “It’s not far.” Not far…

“How near is ‘not far’?” Louis wondered. 

“Around fifteen minutes from here,” Harry informed with a sly grin. There were no places for fancy dress in Fortrose—Unless...

“Oh God,” Louis groaned, stopping Harry from starting his walk towards the door. “I think I’ve figured it out.” 

“Have you?” Harry asked, a mocking lilt to his voice. “I thought it would take you until we actually got there.” 

“Fuck off, Styles,” he rolled his eyes. “After everything we’ve been through, you’re taking me to the spring formal?” 

“Where did you think we were going?” He started walking them to the car again.

“I don’t know,” Louis shrugged. “A nice dinner at some fancy seaside restaurant? The theatre? Anything where I don’t have to dance…” 

“You said nobody but me could get you to dance,” Harry pointed out with a thoughtful expression. 

“That doesn’t mean I want everyone watching as we do,” Louis grumbled, finding that he wasn’t actually upset about going to the dance, but feeling as though he had to complain at least a little. 

“Would you rather do those other things?” Harry held the door open for him and led him through with a hand on the small of his back. 

“You’ve already bought the bloody tickets,” Louis gave in. “And we’re definitely going to win best dressed, if that’s a thing, what with the way we look tonight. It would be a shame not to bring home that trophy for Charlie to put up on the mantle.” Harry opened the car door for Louis with a smile as he rambled on informing him that his right hand was in fact not injured and that he was perfectly capable of opening doors for himself. 

“The others are coming too, you know,” Harry told him with a smirk when he’d gotten in the driver’s seat. “Alice and Zayn are going to be hard to beat in the best dressed category.” 

“Ugh,” Louis pulled a face. “Let the straight couple win and I’ll file a complaint for a hate crime,” he snickered. “And Alice is winning either way. I’ll make sure to thank only her in our hypothetical acceptance speech, nobody else.” 

“You’re actually excited to go now, aren’t you?” Harry laughed as he started the car. 

“It’s a competition and we’re going to win,” Louis nodded. “And dancing with you doesn’t sound half as bad as dancing with Jamie or any of those other dickheads. I still can’t believe he seriously asked me to the dance.” 

“I can’t wait to hear all his inappropriate thoughts once he sees you,” Harry grumbled. “Those thoughts should be forbidden to anyone but me.” 

“Alright, calm yourself Othello,” Louis giggled. “You’re the one who gets to help me out of this outfit tonight, not him or anybody else.” 

“That,” Harry turned towards him with a devilish smile. “That’s a prospect that’ll make me want to end the night early. Is that the purpose? To get me to agree to take you home as soon as possible?” 

“It wasn’t the original intent, but it works out great for me,” Louis grinned. 

There was something almost eerie about driving into the school car park in the evening, and on a Saturday nonetheless. Louis felt as if he was in an alternate universe. They walked to the auditorium and theatre room hand in hand. Louis wondered how they had ended up decorating the room, seeing as he couldn’t help out with the preparations after his ‘rock climbing accident.’ 

Harry showed their tickets to Mr Mason, who took the brief interaction to inform Louis that his essay on soulmates and the use of the term in literature had impressed him with how profoundly worded it was. 

“Can I read that?” Harry asked as soon as they were out of earshot. “I want to know in which context you used the phrase ‘useless as an anchor without a rope.’”

“Nope,” Louis shook his head. “No way.” 

They walked into the ballroom through a curtain of tinsel and were met with a room covered in fairy lights and artfully crafted paper flowers. It truly didn’t look like the theatre Louis had Drama class in everyday anymore. There was a set up for a live band on the stage. Erik was standing up there by an ancient looking sound system with an iPad and waved at them before slowly fading from one song to another with a concentrated frown on his face. 

“Why not?” Harry asked as Louis was gradually turning on his heel and taking in everything the room had to offer. 

“Huh?”

“Why won’t you let me read your essay?” Harry elaborated. 

“Because it’s embarrassing,” Louis turned to him. “And there’s spoilers in it for things I’ve yet to tell you.” Finally Louis recognised the song, it was a cover of ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love.’ He glanced up to Erik, wondering why he would play a slow song like that at the beginning of the evening. Erik just threw him a thumbs up and a wink.

“Like what?” Harry asked again, taking Louis’ hand and slowly leading him to spin under his arm. Nobody else was dancing yet. They had the whole floor to themselves, moving in their own little world, completely unbothered. 

“I’ll give you one of my confessions later,” Louis offered. “I want it to be just you and me when I say it.” 

“Once again you have me willing to leave right this instant.” Harry placed Louis’ hand on his shoulder and put his hand on Louis’ waist. 

It was almost magical how easy Louis found it to let himself get lost in their little dance. He completely let go of any control he had over his body and let Harry lead him in slow circles and exaggerated spins. It almost felt like a first wedding dance with Louis noticing the flash of a camera going off out of the corner of his eye and all the room they had to move. The strange thing was, the idea didn’t frighten him at all. He’d never even wanted to get married, really—Had only considered it as a political statement. But now, with Harry in front of him, covered in lace and extravagance, and the prospect of forever on the horizon...He would say yes in a heartbeat. 

“What are you thinking about?” Harry wondered as the song was coming to an end. 

“Do you really want to know?” Louis spun to a stop right in front of Harry when the crooning voice of the singer faded out. “It’s very cheesy.” 

“I always want to know what you’re thinking.” Harry led them over to one of the small tables in the back of the room. “Ever-curious, I am.” 

“You’re just not used to not knowing,” Louis giggled. “I was thinking that song would be perfect for a first dance at a wedding...Our wedding.” 

“When I asked you in February if you wanted to get married, you said no,” Harry remembered. “What changed your mind so quickly?” 

“You have to ask?” Louis poked Harry’s nose with his pointer finger. “You, obviously.” 

“Can it be this easy?” Harry wondered, catching Louis’ finger and taking his hand. 

“It’s not easy,” Louis disagreed. “Blood has already been spilled for it—Well, figuratively, but you know what I mean...And I’m sure this wasn’t the only hardship we’ll come upon.”

“For what we gain from it, those hardships seem trivial to me,” Harry said, taking Louis’ hand up to his mouth and kissing the back of it. 

It was a couple hours later, after having watched Niall and Gemma pull off a perfect rendition of the final dance from ‘Dirty Dancing’ and posed in the photobooth with an assortment of different groups, that Harry and Louis found themselves alone again. Erin had leaned in to Louis and told him that they’d built a romantic pavilion in the yard. She’d thanked Louis profusely for pressuring Angelica to ask her out after they’d taken double date pictures with a little rainbow flag in their midst. Louis knew he would treasure those pictures forever, if not just for the rainbow, simply for the brilliance of Harry’s smile as he waved the flag. 

He led Harry out to the yard, following the paper butterflies on the walls like Erin had told him to and smiled when he finally saw the pavilion. It was just a simple white tent with four posts, but they had strung fairy lights around the sides and hung more of the same butterflies from the roof. Harry, who’d been carrying Louis’ jacket, carefully draped it around his shoulders when he shivered as they stepped out into the open. There was soft music playing from somewhere within the pavilion and Louis looked around, trying to spot where it came from. He discovered the same portable speaker someone had brought to the party after his first footie match with the team hanging from one of the tent poles. 

“Share one of the things you’ve yet to tell me,” Harry pleaded when they reached the middle of the structure, standing under the peak of the canopy. 

“I want to keep the nautical one for another time...Have you read Plato’s Symposium?” Harry answered with a nod, so Louis continued. “I’d heard of his theory of soulmates before, it’s a common thing to read and hear phrases like ‘my better half.’ But I only really took the time to read the full explanation recently. It goes on and on for paragraphs about how Zeus split humans in half in fear of their power and how we’re doomed to search all our life for the other half to make us whole again.” Louis thought for a second. “I didn’t really like that, him saying that a person is incomplete until they find love, you know?” 

“It certainly does feel like that sometimes while you’re searching though, doesn’t it?” Harry interjected. 

“Maybe,” Louis gave in. “But it rubbed me the wrong way, initially. Until I thought I’d meet my end at the hands of Ann-Marie...I was lying there, waiting for her to kill me and thought that I was ready to let go of this life, because even as young as I am, I’ve felt the joy of reuniting with myself, my other half, and faced the prospect of spending forever in your arms. And that is more than most people get out of their run while wandering Gaia.” 

“The bite you want isn’t as simple as having a sip of ambrosia,” Harry whispered. “It would certainly taste of that to me, but I still believe that your soul is worth more than the dismal forever you so desire.” 

“It’s not dismal when we’re together,” Louis insisted. “Alice saw it, we both feel it, even Liam sees it...We’re meant to be, love. And if Persephone can spend a third of the year in the underworld for the joy of wandering the earth for the remaining eight months, then I can spend forever with you and the rest of eternity in damnation.” 

“I want you to have human experiences before you move on from your life as it is now,” for the first time ever, Harry indirectly agreed to give Louis his bite. 

“I’m having one right now,” Louis giggled. 

“I want to enjoy the sound of your heartbeat quickening when I lean in to kiss you,” Harry mumbled, cupping Louis' jaw while he spoke. “I want to see the beautiful blush spreading on your cheeks when I ask you something you don’t want to tell me the answer to.” He stroked his thumb over the side of Louis’ face. “I want to see you sleep and hear you mumble my name in your dreams because I’ve stopped humming your lullaby.” Louis could feel his cheek heat under Harry’s cold fingers. “There it is,” he smiled. “Can I have all this for just a few more years, please?” 

“A couple,” Louis smiled, standing on his tiptoes and pressing a light kiss to Harry’s lips. 

“It’s all subject to negotiation,” Harry grinned. 

“We both know I’ll win in the end,” Louis said, humming as he rested his head on Harry’s shoulder. 

“Impossible.” Harry carefully wound his arms around Louis’ waist. “I already won the second we reunited, my love.” 

“Sure,” Louis gave in easily. “You just keep telling yourself that.” 

“You always have to have the last word, don’t you?” Harry looked down at him with a soft smile. Louis poked his dimple playfully and flattened his palm against the side of his face. 

“I do,” he said and leaned in for a tender kiss, preventing Harry from saying anything more. With this kiss and the vow associated with it, he knew he’d found his soulmate, his home, his anchor. He could wait a little while to become immortal—After all his forever had already begun. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, I would appreciate kudos and comments or a reblog of [the tumblr post.](https://evilovesyou.tumblr.com/post/616641596219424768/from-what-ive-tasted-of-desire-by-4ureyesonly28) Follow the lovely [artist](https://wilywolf.tumblr.com/) on tumblr and go yell at her about how talented she is!


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